One of my all-time favorite meals is chili, and I’ve been making this Vegetable Turkey Chili one-pot recipe for decades! It’s the perfect bowl of comfort, spice and hearty goodness to curl up with on a cool or rainy night. What could be better? (answer: leftover chili!)

Why You Will Love This Recipe for Ground Turkey Chili

It’s an Easy One-Pot Wonder! It’s easy to make, can be whipped up pretty quickly (or can be left to simmer all day) and requires only one pot! When you’re ready to serve, ladle it out and eat!
It’s Nutritious. Vegetable turkey chili is high in protein and fiber and packs plenty of vitamins. It’s also gluten-free and dairy-free.
It Easily Feeds a Crowd. This recipe makes a large pot of chili – perfect for large families, potlucks, parties … or plenty of leftovers.
It’s Tasty Comfort Food. Most importantly, it’s simply delicious.

One-pot meals were one of my mom’s specialties, and most of my childhood favorites could be ladled out of a large pot (or container of leftovers)! Some things never change … and my kids grew up with plenty of one-pot wonders too.

Ingredient and Substitution Notes

Ground Turkey. This recipe calls for 93/7 turkey. You can substitute with a lean ground beef if you prefer.

Chili Beans. I’m aware of the beans and no beans debate about chili. This recipe embraces team beans, for sure! You can use any brand, mild or spicy, based on how spicy you like your chili. If you are fortunate enough to live somewhere with easy access to Brooks brand chili beans, I highly recommend them. They were the secret ingredient in my mom’s chili when I was growing up. I can’t find them where I live, unfortunately.

Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies. I always use Rotel original, which is easy to find where I live. You can substitute with any brand, and if you can’t find diced tomatoes with green chilies, you can use diced tomatoes (and bump up the chili powder a bit if it isn’t spicy enough for you without the chilies)

Corn. This recipe calls for frozen corn, but you can use drained, canned corn if you need to.

Zucchini. This vegetable may or may not seem like a strange option in chili, but my son growing up wouldn’t eat zucchini … except in this chili. If you (or your family) aren’t up for giving it a try, you can omit it.

Onion. Chop up a full onion.

Tomato Sauce. Any brand will work, but I recommend staying away from anything with Italian seasoning added or low-salt (unless you need to eat a low-sodium diet).

Spices. You’ll use chili powder, garlic powder, ground pepper, onion powder, cumin and salt. You can adjust the spice level by using a little more or less chili powder than the recipe calls for.

How to Make Turkey Veggie Chili: Step-by-Step Process

STEP 1: Brown the ground turkey with the chopped onions in a large pot (6.5 quarters or larger) on medium-high heat.

STEP 2: Add your spices (suggestion: start with 1/2 Tbsp of the chili powder and add all or a portion of the remaining 1/2 Tbsp chili powder later, depending on how spicy you prefer your chili).

STEP 3: While on medium heat, add the beans and tomato sauce.

STEP 4: Add the zucchini and corn, stir and simmer for an hour (or more). Taste and add any additional spices to your taste.

NOTE: most chili powder has salt in it, so don’t add any extra salt until you have tasted it with any additional chili powder.

Storing and Freezing Leftover Chili

This recipe makes a large pot of chili … providing plenty for leftovers! Three cheers for leftovers!!! (and three exclamation points too, if you didn’t notice). LOL.

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE leftover chili! Unless I’m feeding a large crowd, I typically freeze half of each batch. During a busy week when I don’t have a lot of time to cook, it’s so nice to pull an already-made meal out of the freezer (or refrigerator). It’s easy on the ‘ol budget too.

Vegetable Chili Toppings

You can top this chili with cheese (dairy-free or regular), cilantro, avocado, crackers or chips.

My favorite thing to pair it with is one of my popular cornbread recipes:

More Ground Turkey Recipes

Pin it/save it and make it!