https://www.publix.com/recipe/vegetarian-chili-in-bread-bowls

That’s where the original came from. It’s listed as vegetarian, but has no animal products involved at any point.

I make mine from fresh ingredients, and do my own spices though, where it makes sense to do so. I still use the frozen squash if it’s available, and canned tomatoes are almost always going to be better than trying to use what you can buy in a store. Beans, it depends on if I’m making the same batch size as the original recipe. If I am, a can is just more efficient. But if I’m making enough to send home with people, I do my own beans.

I use one large onion, maybe 3 celery stalks, and a mix of peppers, red orange and yellow.

You’d need to add the onion first, sweat them well, then add the celery and peppers for a few minutes before moving on.

If I’m using a fresh butternut squash, I roast it first, then cube it, and it goes in at the end with canned tomatoes.

I also add in an eggplant usually, and I’ll pan roast that in slices until just browned lightly, then chop into chunks. It isn’t necessary, but it adds an extra texture that I think is great.

My spice blend is 2 units chili powder, 1/4 to 1/2 unit of cumin, 1 unit black pepper, 1 unit oregano (usually mexican), 1/2 unit garlic powder (though you can go crazy with it up to a point), 1/2 unit paprika, usually smoked.

Obviously, you can bump up the smoked paprika if you want, but I find the veggies get lost once you go more than a full unit.

Now, the base unit is a tablespoon, but the recipe scales very well, and it really doesn’t matter what units you use, so long as they’re roughly in line with that total amount of total spices per 4 quarts.

Once everything is in the pot, you just set it to simmer for twentyish minutes. The zucchini will just be getting tender at that point, so you taste and salt to your preferences.

My version from fresh, with my spice blend, takes longer and has a much more spice forward taste. Like much more spice forward than the publix version. So feel free to cut back on any or all of it, because I adjusted my version to fit the preferences of my family member that’s full vegan. He tends to prefer his food very intensely spiced. Not necessarily spicy, as in hot, but where you get these pops of the veggies through the spice mix rather than it being a veggie soup with some spices thrown in. Same with why we do fresh veggies where applicable; better textures and the tastes are more distinct in each bite.

We’ve piddled around over the years, and most of the chicken substitutes will work okay as an addition. Tofu, you need to add at the end. Seitan can go in at any point (and it’s likely to be a better choice imo, I love tofu, but not in this).

But, the actual publix version with all the frozen ingredients is still a damn good dish. Good enough that the first three or four times we did it, we didn’t mess around any.

Both versions are prep friendly, too. Make a batch, freeze up portions, and pull out as needed.

If it isn’t obvious, this is also a super easy to alter recipe. You can add to it, delete from it, and still have good food. Don’t like kidney beans? Use black, or navy, or whatever. Add in corn, or okra, or whatever. It may start veering from a chili eventually, but it’s still going to be yummy. Just use a bigger pot if you keep adding. It’s really the combination of the spices and the texture of the squash that makes the dish at its core