September is here and it’s officially fall, even if it is insanely warm here in Los Angeles. But the heat isn’t going to stop me from making fall recipes, which is one of my favorite seasons for cooking. My husband and I love everything pumpkin spice, so I wanted to test my skills and make a sweet and spicy pumpkin spice chili. This recipe is paleo friendly but I did use maple syrup to sweeten it up. I usually like to add some sort of healthy sweetener to my chili recipes to balance the spicy and sour flavors.
I used pumpkin puree from a can, because I wanted to make this recipe as easy as possible for meal planning. Kroger had a large can of 100% pumpkin puree with a non BPA Liner and no preservatives at my local Ralphs. I was really happy with the color and texture of the pumpkin puree for my chili. It thickened up the chili, without adding any thickeners and it also gave it a nice warm brown color after all the spices were added.
Chili is amazing for meal planning and I make it all the time. It’s doesn’t take long, freezes well, and you can get creative with the ingredients. Most of the time I don’t even measure. I just play around with different spices and ingredients that I have available in my pantry and taste test as I go. For inspiration for this recipe, I loosely based it off my Slow Cooker Cincinnati Chili recipe and my Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend from Frontier Co-op. Please let me know if you want more pumpkin spice recipes or share your favorite ones in the comments.
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 29 oz or 1 lb of canned pumpkin puree
- 3 small sweet onions, or two medium to large ones
- 2 cups of chicken stock
- ½ tsp allspice
- 4 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp sweet paprika
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 3 tsp ancho chili powder
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ cup of maple syrup
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp sea salt
- (optional) scallions to garnish
- In a large pot, brown ground beef in coconut oil.
- Then chop onions, and add onions, chicken stock, and pumpkin puree to the pot.
- Then add spices: allspice, cumin, cinnamon, sweet paprika, ground ginger, nutmeg, ancho chili powder, cayenne pepper, and sea salt. Mix pot so ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Add maple syrup and apple cider vinegar to the pot, mix and let simmer on low for 20-minutes.
- (optional) serve with chopped scallions to garnish.