I know what youre thinking.

Pumpkin plus mushroom plus chili equals ew. Right?

Wrong.

This combination may seem unusual, but the flavors in it are not. I wouldnt eat a bad chili, much less post it on my blog. I have won chili cook-offs before, so you can at least expect I know what good chili is.

And I am not a vegan. I do like chili with meat. But good chili doesnt demand meat. And when the thought of making a chili with mushrooms and pumpkin crossed my mind, I thought nothing of it. I had bought a pound of white mushrooms at the market for a great price, and was looking for ways to use it up. Plus, I happen to have pumpkins sitting around right now that I bought from the farm market to have from pumpkin flavored everything.

So besides pies, and pumpkin butter, and pumpkin hot chocolate, and pumpkin lattes, the pumpkin chili also falls under everything.

The pumpkin I use is a pumpkin puree, which you can make from scratch yourself with fresh pumpkins roasted and pureed, or you can use canned, or frozen, or even use winter squash puree such as that from acorn squash or butternut as well. Dont use the kind of canned pumpkin that is called pie mix, and has things like sugar and pumpkin pie spice already mixed in.

The flavor of the pumpkin is not that pronounced, really, as it mingles with the flavors of the chilies in the chili powder. If you didnt know there was pumpkin in this beforehand, you might not suspect it at all. But it does add some body to the chili where I might usually add masa harina to thicken, and it also adds nutrition in the way of beta kerotene, so it is quite healthy.

I do hope you give this a try, as the flavor is really going to surprise you. If you have kids that you want to get to eat more veggies, this might just be the ticket. As well as putting more veggies into your diet as well. All with little to no effort. And believe me, when you taste the first bite, you are going to think I never imagined vegan mushroom pumpkin chili could hold its own among chili con carne!

Vegan pumpkin mushroom chili

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Vegan pumpkin mushroom chili