Recipe: Pumpkin Chili

Don't let the picture fool you, this is actually a very delicious dish. When I first heard about pumpkin chili, I was a little apprehensive. I would never have thought that the two things would good together. I was delighted to see that I was wrong. This was an excellent dish that required few ingredients (although you could add more if you choose) and little effort. It's a dish that is best prepared in a slow cooker, so drop everything in and let it do its thing. Just be sure to stir it occasionally. But we will get to all that in a moment. First, let's get to the ingredients for this Fall concoction.

Meats:

1.5 lbs of ground beef (add or reduce based on your preference)

Veggies:

4-6 Mini Multi-Colored peppers - this is not just for taste but for eye appeal

1 medium shallot diced

4 cloves of garlic chopped

1 can of diced tomatoes and chilis

Base:

1 can of black beans

1 can of pumpkin pie filling

1 can of broth (your choice, I used chicken)

Spices:

When it comes to spices, it is a preference thing, here is what I used in mine

Cumin

Chili powder

Garlic powder

Onion powder

dash of nutmeg

1 cap full of the liquid pumpkin spice

Start off by browning the ground beef in a skillet, drain and set aside. Start your slow cooker and set it on high.

Chop up your veggies and drop them in. Then put in your ground beef, do not stir, leave those veggies under the beef. Then semi-drain the black beans (basically get any liquid off the top) and drop it over your beef. Add in the tomatoes (do not drain). Then put in the pumpkin pie filling. It's going to be a little clumpy, don't worry about it. The pour the chicken broth over the top of everything. Put a lid on and let it cook for about 45min to an hour. Then come back and add all the spices and then stir really well. mix everything up together. It is at this point you will know if you need to add more broth or water to get it to the consistency you like. Just remember this was meant to be a thicker chili so you don't want to overdo it.

From there just let it cook for about another hour on high, then drop it down to low and let it cook for another two hours. Make sure you stir from time to time to keep all those yummy flavors swimming around together. Then get ready to blown away by how amazing this chili tastes! There is just a hint of pumpkin that really does accent the traditional chili flavor. This makes about 8 servings.

Per serving: 319cal 25g Carbs 13g Fat 5g Sat Fat 2g sug 25g Prot

Give it a try this spooky season and drop a comment below and let everyone know what you think.