Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Pumpkin Chili - no beans, yet rich and velvety/thick...





We had a Chili & Cornbread Cook-Off tonight in my LDS ward Relief Society. I didn’t want to show up with a ho-hum variety - so I went to work hunting down a new recipe I hadn’t tried yet. I found this one on RecipeGirl.com - and I was intrigued with it. I have a bunch of surplus canned pumpkin in storage, and decided not to wait until Thanksgiving to start using it.

If you are a chili fan - you fall into one of two categories: BEANS, or NO Beans. I happen to be in the latter... But chili without beans is usually watery and (seemingly) less rich. Adding a little pumpkin solves that problem in this velvety, just-thick-enough recipe. Delicious!

I’m happy to say that I LOVE this chili. I can’t wait to try it in “Walk-Arounds” (I’ll post that one sometime...) and any other recipe that calls for canned chili. And yes - I might just try adding some black or pinto beans also (to make it go further if I have family home) It is great plain - and especially tasty garnished with grated cheddar and sour cream.

I detest chopping a lot of onions - I don’t like to cry because I hate putting my makeup back on so late in the day... I use my blender full of water to chop both onions and green peppers. Chop in large hunks, and give it a whirl or two (be careful not to completely pulverize them, which is easy to do once you start flipping the switch!) The green pepper will “foam” and you will think you’ve ruined it, but it diminishes as it sits in the strainer.

I made several interesting kinds of cornbread also (you HAVE to have cornbread with chili - it cries out for starch!) I’ll post those tomorrow. But for now - give this a try... you won’t be disappointed.

For the recipe, detailed photos, and links - go to:
www.changeabletable.com ("full house" tab)

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