One Pot Vegetarian Chili Mac and Cheese
Updated September 21, 2022
Quick Summary
One Pot Vegetarian Chili Mac and Cheese-two of your favorite comfort foods come together in one pot to create a delicious dinner. This easy recipe makes a great weeknight meal.
What should we have for dinner? I ask my boys that question almost every day and sometimes I wonder why I even ask, ha! I always get a few different answers. Josh is usually up for anything, but my little boys always have an opinion.
The other day Caleb wanted chili with cornbread and Maxwell wanted mac and cheese. They were both chanting for their picks at the top of their lungs. To make them both happy, I made One Pot Vegetarian Chili Mac and Cheese for dinner.
With this recipe, you get the best of both worlds, chili AND mac and cheese. And the best part? It is made in ONE pot and can be on the dinner table in a little over 30 minutes.
I love this chili mac and cheese because it is full of flavor. I use onion, garlic, red bell pepper, red beans, black beans, Hunt’s tomato sauce, Hunt’s diced tomatoes, vegetable broth, chili powder, and cumin. Oh, and my secret weapon, Hunt’s tomato paste. The tomato paste adds a ton of flavor!
When the chili part is ready, I stir in whole wheat elbow macaroni. The pasta will cook in the same pan, no need to boil it first! I love a good one pot meal!
When the pasta is tender, remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. I stir in half of the cheese into the chili mac and save the other half for the top. More cheese, please!
If you are wondering what to have for dinner tonight, make One Pot Vegetarian Chili Mac and Cheese. It is guaranteed to be a hit at the dinner table.
And if you need an easy recipe for game day, add this chili mac to your menu! It is great for tailgating or homegating. We watch a lot of games from home, but we still like to have good food:) Enjoy!
One Pot Vegetarian Chili Mac
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 1 red bell pepper seeds removed and diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pouch Hunt’s Recipe Ready Tomato Paste 2 tablespoons
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 14.5-ounce can Hunt’s diced tomatoes
- 1 15 oz can Hunt’s tomato sauce
- 2 15 0z cans small red beans or kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 2 cups uncooked macaroni pasta we use whole wheat
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/4 cup sliced green onions for garnish, if desired
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium high heat. Add onion and red pepper and sauté until tender, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste, cook for two 2 minutes.
- Stir in vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, red beans, black beans, chili powder and cumin. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Add the uncooked macaroni and stir to combine. Place a lid on the pot and turn the heat up to medium high and bring to a boil. Stir often to loosen the noodles from the bottom of the pan. When it reaches a boil, reduce to low and simmer until the pasta is cooked, about 12-15 minutes.
- Remove from heat and remove the lid. Stir in ½ cup of the shredded cheddar cheese. Top with remaining ½ cup cheese and place the lid on until cheese is melted. Garnish with green onions, if desired. Serve immediately.
Have you tried this recipe?
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That’s quite smart, adding those two requests together… It makes for very creative cooking, I suppose! Looks delicious, I love red beans in anything.
Have a great week!
I love this idea! Whenever I’m at Au Bon Pain I always mix the macaroni and cheese with the chili- such a dynamite combination. I love that you’ve mixed them together here!
Now, this is how you show Monday who’s boss! Pass me a bowl!
I want to make a big pot of this and NOT SHARE WITH ANYONE!!!
YAS! Chili Mac ftw! Definitely need to try this out!
Such a fun weeknight dinner! Great recipe!
Perfect HEARTY dish for a meatless meal.
Hi…
Here in the U.K. I’m pretty sure we don’t have hunts paste, is it the same as tomato purée?
It looks so good I want to try it out.
Thanks
Jayne
It is not the same as puree. Paste is much thicker. Perhaps you can find another brand of tomato paste? The brand I use is Amore. It’s made in Italy.
great comfort food Maria!
I so want a big bowl of this yumminess!
hey girl this looks oh so delish! I love things like this!
It’s hard to get my hubby to go meatless but I think this recipe might do it.
Sounds delicious!
Hello beautiful! Don’t mind a bowl of this if I do!
I saw this recipe this morning, checked my pantry and saw I had everything so I made it tonight. This is perfect for busy nights and for someone who doesn’t like to do tons of dishes like myself! I love all the fancy meals but this is what a realistic weeknight meal looks like at my house. Thank you for giving me another recipe to get on the dinner table without too much work or prep. Love it!
I’m doing a sponsored post using the Hunts tomato paste too! This mac n cheese looks amazing! I need to try this!
Paige
htp://thehappyflammily.com
Pass me a big bowl! Love the comfort of mac and cheese!
Kudos to you for thinking on your feet! Most would just opt for one dinner option or the other. This one pot meal is right up my alley! I’ll have to try it myself.
– J. Munro
http://foodvacuumsealers.com.au
This was delicious. I have two little boys and they gobbled it right up! My husband enjoyed it too! This recipe is definitely a keeper and I will be adding it to our rotation. Thank you for another delicious family-friendly recipe!
I don’t see the pouch of recipe ready paste at the store. Will regular tomato paste work? Thx!
Yes, you can use regular tomato paste in the can.
I’m not much of a cook, but I managed to make this and it’s delicious!
Thanks 🙂
I am vegetarian and have recently started trying some of ur receipes… your quinoa vegetarian chili was amazing and I am now going to fix the mac and cheese vegetarian chili.. please keep showing more vegetarian dishes… i am also going to be trying some of your cookies …:)L
I am glad you are enjoying our recipes. Check out the vegetarian section in our recipe index, there are a lot. The cookies are good too:)
Does this reheat well?
I had leftovers for lunch today and it reheated great!
I agree. Emily made it Wednesday evening and didn’t eat it until Thursday. I first had some today. It was delicious!
this sounds fantastic. i wonder tho can this be cooked in the crockpot? if so can you advise me on setting and cooking time. ty
Hi there! Dos this freeze well?
This was wonderful! I only had one cup of rice elbows so added one cup of quinoa macaroni.(I have gluten sensitivities.
)
I made the whole recipe even though I would be the only one eating it. Didn’t want half can left overs.
I added grated cheese to my portion in the bowl, and froze the rest in separate servings.
Thanks for the recipe!
Made this last night and I was surprised by how AWESOME this was! I expected it to be good, but it’s going in my top recipes now. It does make a lot though, so plan on either serving a lot of people or having a lot of leftovers. Highly recommend!
Yay! So happy you loved it!
Can you make in a crockpot?
I haven’t tried it. Let me know if you do!
Yummy! I’ll have to put this on our list soon! I’m really hungry for something like this.
My daughter made this the other night, because hubby and I were going to be gone for supper last night, and it was going to be snowy. Emily could eat well and not have to leave the house. She was happy! Tonight, I had some. It’s yummy!
So glad you liked it!
My kids loved it! It was delicious and will be one of our new favorites for sure. Thank you so much for sharing!!
Glad it was a hit!
Your website is my go-to site when I need to feed vegans and omnivores! I made this yesterday to feed a crew of vegans and vegetarians after a winter hike. This is delicious and filling; enjoyed by all! Thank you for such delicious and easy recipes. They are easily adaptable and still stay true to the original recipe.
Your chili Mac looks yummy, and I have almost all the ingredients. Thank you
Hi Any way to work out the protein and calories etc or average? thanks
this is quite good. I’m eating a bowl of it right now. there are some things I had to change, though. I needed to add more liquid because the macaroni absorbed it as it cooked. I added a can or Ro-Tel also. pretty much everything else was good, although the prep time is misleading. It may be only 10 minutes if you don’t count opening cans, chopping onion, pepper and garlic. All in all, this is a winner.
I forgot to rate this. and I was also way too reserved. this is more than a winner. it’s darned good. VERY good. I’m-on-my-second-bowl good. You won’t regret making it.
Glad you liked the recipe!
Yummy last night and yummy again today for lunch. This will definitely go into our regular rotation.
How many servings does this make?
I just made this for lunch, thought it was ok, makes at least 6 servings. I would probably just rather have veg chili instead, i don’t like the way the cheese coats your spoon when eating, and it gets really dry as it sits so will need to add extra moisture for leftovers. I need more seasoning and spice in my life and would have used tomatoes with green chilis but had hopes my 11 yr old would eat it or at least try it, but no. Its ok, probably good for a large family.
Easy and tasty recipe – reheats really well!
Thank you for this awesome recipe! I veganized it by using dairy free cheese and also added a pound of beyond meat that I browned. My boyfriend and I loved it drizzled with a little cashew sour cream!