A delicious and gently spicy chili perfect for the Fall and football season. White bean pumpkin chili is an easy recipe for a tasty meal.
Looking for more one-pot meals? Try our Italian Wedding Soup or Pasta Fagioli with Spinach.
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Fall Chili
One of my favorite recipes for early in football season — I mean Fall — is White Bean Pumpkin Chili. Enjoying a nice Pumpkin ale and this chili is a great way to get the Autumnal season started. I love it when summer comes, but I have to tell you, I also love to see it leave!
Chili is quite an unbelievable food because everyone makes "the best" chili but no one uses a recipe. This easy white bean pumpkin chili lets you follow an easy recipe but also explains why we make it this way.
We can always throw a bunch of white beans, kidney beans, tomato sauce, and ground beef in a pot and call it chili. But a nice autumn pumpkin chili truly needs time, care, and love.
Substitutions and Ingredient Notes
Beans. Obviously, you need white beans for this chili, but you can also add in kidney beans like we did. Or you can just double up on the white beans.
Ground beef. You can substitute ground turkey or venison for the ground beef and the recipe will be just as delicious.
Pumpkin ale. You can substitute a regular lager or ale if you don't have a pumpkin beer on hand.
Spice. Temper the spiciness by decreasing the cayenne pepper or omitting the jalapeno.
Making White Bean Pumpkin Chili
Step 1: In a pan on medium-high heat, you want to place your ground beef and break it up as much as you can. Once you break apart the meat, season it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder. This whole process should take around 6-8 minutes. Keep stirring until you barely see any pink left and then transfer it to a plate.
Step 2: You're going to take your vegetables next, specifically the carrots, onions, and celery, and sauté them in a large sauce pot with olive oil over medium-high heat for 8n minutes. Season with ¼ of your seasoning mix.
Step 3: Once your seasoning is mixed throughout the mirepoix, add in your garlic and allow it to sauté for about 2 minutes, or until fragrant.
Step 4: Finally, add in the 6 oz. of tomato paste and allow that to cook down for about 4-5 minutes, mixing it through all the vegetables. Cooking the tomato paste before adding your liquids allows it to caramelize which will help the flavor develop a richer tomato base, or otherwise increase how savory the dish is.
Pro-Tip
- Layering your seasonings is really important to make a great fall chili. If we were going to throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and call it a day, then we really don't need recipes. Which is fine, too. Some nights are just, throw it all in the pot and get dinner out on the table type of nights. But this is an impress-the-guests type of chili.
Let's Make this Fall Chili Saucy
Step 5: Mix in your beef broth, roasted tomatoes with chiles, Worcestershire, and pumpkin beer and you'll bring this to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, stir in the rest of your seasonings until thoroughly combined. Add in everything else now, cacao powder, ground beef, red peppers, jalapeno peppers, habanero peppers, pumpkin puree, white beans, and kidney beans.
Step 6: Return it to a simmer and cover but leave a little crack in the pot to let the steam out. This will help the chili cook down so it isn't too saucy. Simmer the chili for about 2 hours or until it reaches the desired texture.
FAQs
Make an amazing cornbread to go along with your white bean pumpkin chili. It was the perfect match for chili.
The cacao powder helps balance out the acidity of the tomatoes and increases the savory taste of the dish.
I would still make the mirepoix and tomato paste mix and brown the ground beef in a pan first. Then you could put it in the crock pot on low for 4 hours.
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More Dutch Oven Recipes
📖 Recipe
White Bean Pumpkin Chili
Equipment
- 1 dutch oven or large pot
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Ground Beef 85% fat
- 3 Medium Carrots Chopped
- 1 Medium Onion Chopped
- 2 Celery Stalks Chopped
- 10 Cloves of Garlic Minced
- 1 Red Pepper Chopped
- 2 Jalapenos Chopped
- 1 Habanero Minced
- 6 Oz Tomato Paste
- 2 14 oz Cans Fire Roasted Tomatoes with Chiles
- 1 Cup Beef Broth
- 1 12 oz Pumpkin Brown ale
- 2 Cans White Northern Beans Rinsed
- 1 Can Kidney Beans Rinsed
- ½ Cup Pumpkin Puree
- 2 teaspoon Chili Powder
- 1 teaspoon Onion Powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2 teaspoon Cumin
- 1 Tsp Ground White Pepper
- 1-2 Tsp Cayenne pepper
- 1 Tsp Nutmeg
- 2 Tsp Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon 100% Cacao Powder
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
- 2 tablespoon Olive Oil
Seasoning for Ground beef
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
- ½ teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
Instructions
- Brown your ground beef in a pan on medium high heat. Add in seasonings for ground beef once you have ground all the beef in the pan it is starting to brown. Mix in until combined. Remove ground beef from pan and put to side.
- Combine all your seasonings and split out about a ¼ of the seasonings into a separate bowl.
- In a large pot, heat up olive oil on medium high heat. Sauté your carrots, onions and celery together until they begin to soften, stirring often. Stir in the ¼ of your seasonings that you separated.
- Once softened, add in your minced garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Now add in your tomato paste. Allow it to cook for 3-4 minutes and combine well with vegetables.
- Next, mix in your beer, beef broth, fire roasted tomatoes, the rest of your seasonings, and ground beef. Bring to a soft boil.
- Once boiling, add in your red pepper, jalapenos, and habaneros. Then stir in your pumpkin puree, Worcestershire, hot sauce, cacao powder, and beans.
- Return the pot to a simmer and cover leaving an opening for steam to escape. simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours. Allow the sauce to boil down to a sauciness that you enjoy. The longer you simmer, the less liquid your chili will have.
Notes
- The reason I split the seasonings up the way I did is because it's important to layer in your seasonings to maximize flavor.
- Cooking your tomato paste like this brings out a richer flavor and it is highly recommended to add it in the way described to have a deeper and richer flavor.
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