Know thy chili pepper! Getting to know the chili peppers that you will use will help you in figuring out just how much heat you can take in your chili dish. So the trick is to know which types of chili peppers are the hottest. When you are cooking your vegetarian chili recipes, it is a good idea to start adding your chilies toward the end of the dish around the last two hours of cooking. Chili peppers are rated by Scoville heat units. This means that some chili peppers can actually burn the skin, eyes or nasal passages. Do not handle chili peppers with your bare hands!

Link:
Vegetarian Chili Recipes – 5 Tips to Making Great Vegetarian Chili!