Pumpkin chili

Photo: The Recipe Critic

Your usual beef-and-bean chili, with a can of pumpkin stirred in. It thickens the pot and rounds off the heat. Nobody guesses it's there.

From Alyssa Rivers at The Recipe Critic · @alyssa_therecipecritic

The game-day pot of the season: three kinds of beans, warm spices and pumpkin for body.

You need

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1½ lb ground beef
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (10 oz) Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles, with their juice
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 2 bay leaves

How to make it

1. Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook 3 to 4 minutes until soft, then the garlic for 30 seconds.
2. Add the ground beef, turn the heat up to medium-high and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, for 6 to 8 minutes, until browned with no pink left. Spoon off most of the fat.
3. Add both bell peppers and cook 3 minutes more.
4. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, oregano, smoked paprika, salt and pepper and cook 1 minute so the spices bloom.
5. Add the three kinds of beans, the Rotel with its juice, the pumpkin, tomato paste, broth and bay leaves. Stir until the tomato paste and pumpkin dissolve into the liquid.
6. Bring to a boil, then turn down to low and simmer, partly covered, for 30 minutes, stirring now and then, until thick and the flavors have come together.
7. Pull out the bay leaves, taste for salt and serve, with whatever you like on chili: cheddar, sour cream, scallions, avocado.

Written in our own words from Alyssa Rivers's recipe, with their quantities. The original: Pumpkin chili, The Recipe Critic.

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