Pumpkin Beef Chili

I have to start today off with saying how truly grateful I am for my husband to have such amazing coworkers. They’ve got to be the most thoughtful, comedic and intelligent group a guy/gal could ask for. To honor each of them and their significant others, Logan and I hosted a night of food, fun, and fellowship.

I have to come clean, this was the largest group I have ever cooked for. Even growing up in a family of six, I was a little nervous for cooking for double that. There’s never anything worse than not having enough food for your guests.

After much pondering, I decided that the simplest way to make something so tasty and warm was to make chili. We had 11 people and this recipe allowed us to have plenty of food. In addition to this chili I also made my turkey chili for those of us who don’t eat red meat.

All that I had to do was put the chili together that morning and let it simmer while all of the flavors married the whole day. This way, you have the rest of your day to prepare other things like toppings, side dishes, and of course, desserts. 🙂

I hope you enjoy this autumn treat that’ll warm your belly and your soul.

Pumpkin Beef Chili

adapted from In Erika’s Kitchen

Ingredients

  • 3.5 pounds organic ground beef
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 2 red bell peppers, diced
  • 1 can reduced sodium black beans
  • 1 can pinto beans
  • 1 can reduced sodium dark kidney beans
  • 1 can no salted added corn
  • 1 can pumpkin
  • 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon minced jalapeno (finely chopped jarred sliced jalapeno)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • 4 tablespoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
  • pepper

How-To

  1. Sauté the onions and peppers in a pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.
  2. Add the sautéed onions and peppers to your large stock pot, along with the remaining ingredients (excluding the beef).
  3. In the same pan you used to sauté the vegetables, cook the ground beef with some pepper.
  4. Once, complete, add the beef to the big pot (or large crock-pot, if you have it).
  5. Let it simmer all day (I let it simmer for 10 hours), stirring every hour.
  6. Serve with your favorite corn bread (recipe to follow tomorrow) and topped with things like light sour cream, part-skim sharp cheddar cheese, green onions, hot sauce (I tend to make things not too spicy…you can always add spice, you can’t take it away) and/or tortilla chips.

Servings: around 20

18 comments

    1. Thank you for sharing your recipe! It was a hit at the party. I’m looking forward to making it again. 🙂

  1. The pumkin chili was delicious! On behalf of Logan’s coworkers, we thank you for inviting us into your beautiful home, the fun fellowship, and the award-winning food 🙂

  2. Pingback: Chili Round-Up
  3. This recipe looked amazing! I’m not sure how everyone else dealt with it but the 4 tablespoons of chili powder was WAY too much. I only put in 3 and thought it looked like a lot. I have had to add an extra litre of liquid and we still could barely eat it :(. It ended up being a ruined dish unfortunately. I might try it again but will A LOT less chili powder!

    1. Oh dear, I’m sorry to hear that it was too spicy. Do you mind me asking what kind of chili powder you use? I use McCormick’s Chili Powder and find that it gave the perfect blend of spices and spice to the toned down flavors of the pumpkin and vegetables. If you still have your batch, try adding some plain greek yogurt or sour cream and it’ll help tone down the spice.

  4. I made this chili for dinner tonight and it turned out delicious! Like others, I made a few modifications.:
    I didnt have tomato sauce so used two cans of diced tomatoes (one that included diced green chiles, yum), added a cup of beef broth, used two cans of black beans and one of red kidney as those are our favorites. Everything else pretty much the same. So good I’ll make this again; thank you!

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