The Pumpkin Chili Story

It came together as a perfect creation from happenstance like a good Chopped episode in my kitchen. Here’s how.

Yesterday we made nachos with some fancy ground beef (regular beef + ground aged somethinerother) that Johnny got from the farmer’s market.

The original plan for the meat was to make some gourmet burgers but that didn’t work because I didn’t have the right bread or cheese. It’s probably good because this meat was just too rich to eat in any quantity, even though I drained off as much of the fat that I could after browning it.

We didn’t eat much of it on nachos because again, it’s just too heavy and rich. I put the leftovers in the fridge in a bag.

Today, there is a chill in the air so chili seemed like a good idea for dinner, to ease us into my least favorite month of the year.

Last weekend I bought two pieces of pumpkin at the Caribbean market. I didn’t know exactly what I’d do with it, maybe some (pureed) curry pumpkin soup. But I hadn’t made anything with it yet and didn’t want it to go bad so I brushed it with olive oil and roasted it in the oven at 375 degrees for somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours.

While it was in the oven I looked online for some inspiration, since you know I don’t do recipes. I saw all these vegan pumpkin chili recipes with black beans and that’s the route I wanted to go, but of course not vegan because of the fancy shmancy beef.

Then I found out that I have no canned black beans. I didn’t feel like pressure cooking some dried ones because it was too late to soak them at all and if they’re not soaked ahead of time they wind up with all kinds of cooking problems, imo. But I’ve got chickpeas. Yeah, that’s the ticket! Pumpkin chickpea fancy beef chili.

Now back to the pumpkin. It may be that this pumpkin is a little bit different from the typical jack o lantern pumpkin because its texture made it cook faster than I expected. I wanted to cut it into chunks for the chili but now it’s too soft and I don’t really want to puree it because I had already committed to the chili. I’d already sauteed some onion and jalapeno and green bell pepper and added the fancy meat.

I drained a can of chickpeas and poured them in with a can of fire roasted diced tomato. I added more chili powder, seasoned salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Then I took a chance. I just squished the pumpkin between my fingers and put it into the pot. I had to add some water because it was too thick and then I simmered it on medium low for about half an hour.

I went upstairs for a minute (where the aroma had not penetrated) and when I came back downstairs the smell was unbelievable! So my husband got some and he liked it. Good sign!

Now let me describe this masterpiece. You know that pumpkin is a little but not too sweet so there’s that. Like eggplant, pumpkin can suck up some flavors and spread them around a dish like velvet. The texture of the chili is a lot like a rich tajine, just with different spices. The chickpeas were fine because they’re mild. And bonus–it’s nutritious, full of fiber from the pumpkin and beans to balance out that rich flavorful meat and prevent indigestion.

Pumpkin chickpea fancy beef chili is now officially on my repertoire of hearty and pleasing easy fall/winter dishes.