The Best Healthy Pizza Chili

Pizza chili offers all the flavors of pizza and chili in one hearty, comforting bowl! This easy main dish comes together quickly enough for a weeknight meal, or you can make it in the slow cooker and let it simmer all day. Packed with nutrition, this healthy chili recipe is even better as leftovers the next day.

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Pizza Chili is the Best!

Is this pizza chili recipe really the best?

Well, our family has been enjoying it for many years. Whatever “the best” means, this version is reliable, easy, and a longtime favorite. Some of us like it better than any other chili, though I may be alone in preferring it to pizza.

Things to love about pizza chili:

• most importantly, it tastes good! Flavor is a basic requirement.
• easy on the tummy! Keep reading for how to make the beans easier to digest.
• versatile! Tweak the recipe to fit what you have or like. Suggestions follow; this is a flexible recipe.
• quick and easy! You can make a lot in a little time. Feed a crowd, plan for leftovers, or freeze some.
• fast or slow! Originally a slow cooker meal, this recipe works well on the stove for a quick meal.
• use staples to make it last-minute! I often have the ingredients on hand– or most of them.
• hearty and filling! This is such a bonus with hearty eaters– this chili really fills people up.
• protein and veg! At least for us, plenty of both are a winning combo. Add carbs if you want, or don’t.
• special diet friendly! Gluten free and top 9 allergen free if you don’t add cheese.

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Is Pizza Chili Healthy?

Well, you may consider it healthy… or not. It has lots of meat and lots of vegetables. I am happy to serve both to my family. If you lean meat-based or veggie-based, you might not consider this recipe to be particularly healthful. It really depends on your goals.

Using good quality ingredients, like organic veggies (and fruits– after all, the peppers and tomatoes are really fruits) and organic, grass fed beef and pepperoni will make a more nourishing meal. If I use broth, I like to use a nutrient dense meat stock prepared according to GAPS instructions.

The other piece of making this pizza chili healthier is carefully preparing the beans. Famously hard to digest, you can prepare beans for better digestibility. In fact, it is easy to do! The hands-on time is low, but you need to plan a day or so in advance. Preparing beans this way is cheaper than buying canned beans. You will absorb more nutrition with prepared beans as well.

How to Prepare Beans

Start a day before you need the beans. I prepare a big batch every few months, cool all the beans, and store them in portions in the freezer. Then I pull out what I need and use them even at the last minute– they thaw very quickly.

You can find different methods for preparing beans online. Do what seems to work for you! At the moment, I use a mashup of techniques from GAPS and Dr. Gundry. I’m not strictly following either, though! Read more here about preparing beans for a happy gut.

The science behind proper bean soaking is that beans, like grains, nuts, and seeds, have naturally occuring “anti-nutrients” that protect the beans but make them hard to digest. Also known as “lectins”, these substances can damage our gut lining and also make nutrients harder to absorb. Reducing them may limit damage and make nutrients in beans more available to our bodies.

The GAPS part is the soaking– I soak the beans for 24 hours in filtered water with a quarter cup or so of whey or apple cider vinegar. Another GAPS distinctive is to choose navy beans; they are less starchy and thus feed pathogenic gut bacteria less. I used kidney beans, which are starchier.

The Steven Gundry part is pressure cooking. Sometimes I cook beans on the stove GAPS-style, but often I pressure cook them. Not only is pressure cooking fast, but, according to Dr. Gundry and others, pressure cooking helps reduce lectins in the beans. I make a huge pot of beans, cool them, use some that day, and portion the rest out and freeze them.

Do I have to prepare beans this way?

No, you can use canned beans or dried beans you just cooked without soaking. The recipe will work the same. The beans may be harder on you, but if you are in perfect health and never have any trouble with beans, you may decide to skip the soaking stage.

How to Make Pizza Chili

Start browning your meat. I used 2 lbs of grass fed beef. Other ground meats will also work fine, and you can even use leftover cooked meat, like shredded beef, instead. Break the meat up into your soup pot and let it begin to cook.

While your meat browns, chop up some onions, a jalapeño, and a bell pepper. The amounts are suggestions; use more if you like!

Once the meat is nearly cooked, add the veggies and cook until they soften. Add garlic; cook another minute or two, then add the beans, pasta sauce, chili powder, and Italian seasoning. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook over a low heat until everything is tender.

Slice and stir in the pepperoni at the end of the cooking time; it will lose flavor if it cooks the whole time.

Taste, add salt, and add more seasoning if needed. If you want the chili to be thinner, you can add water or broth. In the pictures, I ended up adding a whole quart of chicken stock. If I use a slow cooker, I don’t add any broth.

Slow Cooker Instructions

This recipe started out as a slow cooker recipe. I think it was from this cookbook which I used a lot for awhile. I changed the recipe over the years, and I don’t remember exactly how the original recipe was. It was good, though; if you have that cookbook, definitely try it!

If you use a slow cooker, you need to brown the ground beef first. You can stick all the veggies in raw, dump everything else in and let it go on low for several hours or high for 2-4 hours. I still put the pepperoni in at the end, which I don’t think the original recipe called for.

Can I make this in an instant pot?

I haven’t done it, but I think you could.

I would brown the beef in the instant pot using the sauté function first. Then add everything except the pepperoni and switch to pressure cook for maybe 20-30 minutes. If you use your instant pot much, you will know better how long! I don’t really use my instant pot this way.

Once your have finished cooking, released the pressure, and can remove the lid, stir in the pepperoni and carefully cool and taste to adjust your salt and seasonings.

I think this would work! Let me know if you try it…

What changes can I make?

One of the beauties of chili is that you can do all sorts of things to it and still have a wonderful result! Use what you like, what you have, and what you want to eat more of! Here are some ideas:

• tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, or even tomato juice
• change the quantities– more or fewer beans, more or less vegetable or meat
• different meats– other ground meats, Italian sausage, chorizo, shredded meat, etc.
• for extra nutrition, include some cooked, finely chopped organ meat. Its flavor will recede into all the others. For least objectionable flavor, try beef heart. Mild flavor and super nourishing!
• use canned green chilies for added convenience
• add other veggies– just about anything can work– celery, zucchini, etc. Even use up bits of leftovers– they will disappear in the chili!
• play with the seasoning– different quantities, add cumin, oregano, red pepper flakes, etc.

Is Pizza Chili GAPS compliant?

Not really. The pepperoni is the main problem. You can find pepperoni that is close to GAPS, but it is still processed. You could leave it out, of course, but it will taste different. You might compensate with pepper and extra garlic.

Beans aren’t a great GAPS food. If you prepare them very carefully, don’t eat a lot of them, and have been on the GAPS diet for a long time, you may do OK with the beans.

Peppers and tomatoes are also not great for some on GAPS because they are nightshades. Decide for yourself what you need to eat and what you need to avoid.

How to Serve Pizza Chili

This is a great dish all on its own! Scoop into a bowl and eat…

While I like to load regular chili and especially white chicken chili with toppings, I prefer this pretty simple. There are a lot of flavors going on already! Maybe just some Parmesan cheese. Or cheddar.

You could add other things, though; sour cream, sliced green onions, or any sort of chopped onion, extra pepperoni, etc.

We don’t eat any bread-like side with this any more. We used to eat it with tortilla chips, which is a good combo. It would go nicely with garlic bread, too. Maybe a salad or some fruit. The chili is pretty filling on its own!

What do you like to eat with chili?