****I don't know what happened to my pictures! I'm going to leave this blog post up, for the directions....meanwhile, I'm hunting down my pictures in the blogosphere picture graveyard...
I found a variety of black bean & pumpkin chili recipes on the internet, but none of them was quite what I was looking for - so I kinda just combined them and made my own. Enjoy!
Here are the canned goods you will need.
1 - 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes;
2 - 15 oz cans of black beans;
1 - 15 oz can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix - just plain pumpkin)
2 cups of chicken broth.
Here are the spices that you will need.
Cumin - 1 1/2 tsp
Oregano - 1 1/2 tsp
Chili Powder - 2 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Minced Garlic - 1 1/2 tsp
You will also need about 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef. Start by browning your ground beef in a skillet. **you can also use ground turkey, left over round steak (shredded), chicken (shredded) - or your personal choice in meat.
While your ground beef is browning, chop up a small onion.
Drain and rinse your black beans. I just throw mine in a colander and rinse with cold water.
While your ground beef is still browning, go ahead and put your canned items in your crockpot. (pumpkin, diced tomatoes, black beans and chicken broth).
When your ground beef is done, put your chopped onions and minced garlic in the skillet with a tsp of olive oil and start sauteing.
Put your browned ground beef in with your ingredients in your crockpot.
Add your spices to the mix. (Cumin, Oregano, Chili Powder and Salt) You can always add spices that your prefer, but I recommend these as a base.
When your onions and garlic start looking slightly browned and translucent....like this.
...Add them to the rest of your mixture.
Once mixed up, your chili will look like this. Simmer on low in your crockpot for about 5 hours. The smell is amazing!
My final thoughts are that this chili is delicious. We both loved it and it is a welcome change from the normal everyday chili. My thoughts on this, at first, were that it was wonderful when I tasted it, but a little bland on the "back end" of the taste. When I mentioned this to Chris, he took another bite and thought....and tasted...and thought....and said that he could see what I was talking about and if I hadn't ever said anything, he never would have noticed. He thought it was perfect....but I might have to play with the spices a little more ;)
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