7 Healthy Homemade Chili Recipes to Keep You Warm All Season

7 Healthy Chili Recipes You Need this Season

Chili is the perfect cold-weather treat: It’s warm, takes only a stitch of effort (Crock Pot, anyone?) and fills you up, fast. But if the recent red meat warnings (not to mention the saturated fat) have got you spooked, we found seven healthy chili recipe ideas that are still mouth-wateringly great. So skip the high-fat ground beef at the grocery store and stock up on ingredients for these healthy chili recipes, featuring lean animal protein sources like chicken or heartier plant-based ones like lentils instead. No matter which you choose, get ready to hunker down with a bowl of goodness — and lot of leftovers that will make great lunches for the rest of your week. (Another great idea: one of these quinoa bowls, TBH.)

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Healthy Turkey Chili Recipes

1. Turkey Chili With White Beans
This white-bean and turkey blend, which takes on its hue from peppers and tomatoes, is perfect for those looking to up the nutrition factor of traditional chili without sacrificing any flavor. Northern white beans are full of resistant starch, which takes far longer to digest, thus keeping you fuller, longer. Photo and Recipe: Perry Santanatoche / Life by DailyBurn

Lentil Chili Recipes

2. Lentil Chili
Taking the main ingredient out of a dish — in this case, any kind of meat — can be a bit daunting if you’re serving dinner to a bunch of meat-loving carnivores. But in this case, lentils work as a substitute for the chunky, delicious texture chili usually has while also adding a ton of lean protein, fiber, folate and iron, too. Photo and Recipe: Katya / Little Broken

5 Ingredient White Chicken Chili Recipe

3. 5-Ingredient Easy White Chicken Chili
In our book, the less ingredients, the better. Especially when the recipe doesn’t short you on flavor. Enter this chili, which uses salsa verde to give it some color (and of course, major heat). Photo and Recipe: Ali / Gimme Some Oven

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Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili Recipe

4. Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili
Sweet potatoes are one of our favorite fall foods: Not only are they healthy and chockfull of vitamins, but they’re also especially yummy and versatile, working just as well with turkey as they do with chili or For a healthy topper, try some fresh cilantro, a bit of queso fresco or avocado slices, as shown. Photo and Recipe: Gaby / What’s Gaby Cooking

Slow Cooker Verde Chicken Chili Recipes

5. Slow Cooker Verde Chicken Chili
Make this in the a.m. and come home to a perfect dinner after work. Frozen corn contributes a bit of flavor and lot of texture, while the hot sauce, salsa, chili powder and diced jalapeños give it a real kick. But play with the amount of spice you want here: No one will miss that extra dash of hot sauce. (And if they do, hand them the bottle, right?) Photo and Recipe: Stacie / Simply Stacie

Vegetarian Quinoa Chili Recipes

6. Quinoa Vegetarian Chili
Quinoa’s one of our favorite grains because it’s so versatile: You can literally eat it for breakfast, lunch and dessert. Surprisingly, it also adds a great texture to chili. With two types of beans and quinoa’s own protein-packed punch, your belly will never notice the missing meat — same for your brain. Photo and Recipe: Emily Miller / Life by DailyBurn

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Tempeh Lentil Chili Recipes

7. Lentil, Tempeh and Sweet Potato Chili
Milder than most traditional recipes, this chili is full of goodness and flavor without the tongue-stinging kick. Tempeh, which crumbles like ground meat, is an ideal vegetarian substitute that takes on the other flavors beautifully. Photo and Recipe: Kathleen Henry / Produce on Parade

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