Soul-Satisfying Harvest Pumpkin Chili for a Crowd

Harvest Pumpkin Chili is a seriously delicious, soul-satisfying, comfort dish.  Seriously!  I’ve never added pumpkin to chili before, so I was a little skeptical.  But, I had 2 cups of fresh pumpkin puree left over from my Pumpkin Patch Pals Pumpkin Pie escapade, so what to do?  What to do?

I’d already made dessert, so I wanted to make something savory.  A little on-line research produced an Autumn Pumpkin Chili from Taste of Home that seemed tasty.  But, I always want to “kick it up a notch”, “push the envelope” and try to improve on a winner.  Plus, I want to make my recipes as healthy and sugar-free and/or fat-free as possible, so inevitably, I do lower sugar and lower fat substitutes.

Did I mention that it is seriously delicious?  Seriously!  Can you see the pumpkin meat cascading off of the spoon above?  Not sure you will have the same effect with canned pumpkin puree, but if you haven’t yet baked any of your 33 pumpkins from catching Pumpkin Fever {grin}, here’s your chance to create a dish that your family will love!  It will be a new classic dish to add to your fall recipe favorites!

And, actually, making pumpkin puree from fresh pumpkin isn’t hard.  For instructions, check out my earlier post:  Pumpkin Patch Pals Pumpkin Pie.

But, to share in a nutshell:  put your Pie Pumpkin (that’s a particular kind of pumpkin, made for baking pies, on the smallish side) on a baking sheet, bake at 375 degrees for about 50 minutes to an hour until tender.  Cool completely, chop in half, scoop out the pumpkin seeds (save for Roasted Pumpkin Seeds with Sea Salt or discard), peel the flesh from the pumpkin meat, and mash the pumpkin meat with a potato masher.  I encourage you, however, to read my post, Pumpkin Patch Pals Pumpkin Pie, so that you can see this process in pictures!

Anyway, here’s what you do to create this amazingly delicious recipe:

1. One green bell pepper.
2. Seeded and chopped green bell pepper.
3. One orange bell pepper or 5 small orange bell peppers (I buy the smaller ones in a bag with red and yellow peppers because they are usually cheaper, plus then I have “choices”).
4. Seeded and chopped orange bell pepper.
5. One yellow onion.
6. Peeled and chopped yellow onion.
7. 3 cloves of garlic.
8. Peeled and finely diced garlic.

1. Spray a non-stick skillet with olive oil spray (I used my Misto).  Add the onion and sauté until slightly caramelized.
2. Add the green bell pepper, the orange bell pepper and the garlic.  Stir and continue to sauté until slightly tender.
3. Add a package of ground turkey (my package comes with 20 ounces of ground turkey and I used the entire package; but, I’m sure you could use one pound and save the rest for another recipe).
4. Break up ground turkey with a spoon, mix with the sautéed veggies and continue to cook until ground turkey is no longer pink.
5. Add all the spices:  salt, pepper, chili powder, crushed red pepper flakes, ground cumin.  Mix well, melding flavors.

1. Transfer meat/veggie mixture to a large slow cooker and add one can of kidney beans, undrained.
2. Add one cup of frozen corn.
3. Add two cans of dices tomatoes, undrained.
4. Add two cups of mashed fresh pumpkin or one 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree (not the pie filling).
5. Mix all ingredients together, cover and cook on low heat for 5 to 7 hours.
6. Finished Harvest Pumpkin Chili.

Garnish with your choice of shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream and sliced green onions.  I used all three!

My recipe made 9 cups of Harvest Pumpkin Chili, which is 6 healthy servings at one and a half cups per serving.  For smaller appetites, one cup is plenty.

I encourage you to roast your Halloween pumpkins instead of throwing them away (is that considered recycling?  Or, green living?  Or, just being a cheap-skate? {grin}).  Unless of course, you bought one of those giant Big Mac pumpkins!  I’ve been told that larger pumpkins don’t make good cooking or eating pumpkins (too stringy), but I haven’t (yet) cooked a pumpkin larger than a jack-o-lantern pumpkin!

Here’s the recipe:

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Please note:  I’ve made Harvest Pumpkin Chili many times.  The second time I made it, I added the spices to the slow cooker instead of the meat/veggie mixture in the skillet.  It wasn’t as flavorful, so I suggest that you remember to do this before adding to the slow cooker!

Enjoy!

Tootles,

 

Related Posts:

(other pumpkin recipes)

• Pumpkin Patch Pals Pumpkin Pie
• Roasted Pumpkin Seeds with Sea Salt

(other pumpkin posts)

• Blue Pumpkins
• In Search of The Great Pumpkin
• Pony Rides, Playtime and Pumpkins
• Princess P Finds a Pumpkin
• Princess Sweetie Pie Finds a Pumpkin
• Pumpkin Fever
• Pumpkin Season

(other posts from the pumpkin patch)

• Call of the Whinny:  Yet Another Story from the Farm
• Nuts at the Nut Farm
• Scarecrows, Sunflowers and Face-painting:  Another Story from the Farm
• Straw Maze and Lazy Daze
• Witch’s Brew