As mentioned in Day 33 of The Challenge
It is pumpkin season again! We picked up a big Georgia Candy Roaster Pumpkin from a road-side stand (also excellent as dessert just roasted with a little olive oil and cinnamon! If you want to be decadent add butter and brown sugar to the hot orange mess and pour cream over the top, but it honestly doesn't need it! I think this will be my dessert for as long as the pumpkin lasts.) As the evenings have turned cooler, we decided to make a pumpkin chilli, with pumpkin replacing the role of the tomato. It worked well but was missing something, so we added a bit of tomato to the leftovers the next night and it was beautiful. Sweet and hot with just the right touch of acidity to balance it, and the deeper flavour notes from the beans.
Ingredients:
1/3 of a large pumpkin
3 tbsp of olive oil
3 cups of assorted beans, soaked and ready to go ( we used adzuki and pinto beans)
3 onions, chopped
2 heads of garlic, chopped
2 red peppers, chpped
2 spicy(ish) white pepper
4 chilli peppers, chopped
8 mushrooms, chopped
2 tsp orange curry powder (or another of your choice. This is an interesting one we picked up in a market)
1 tsp Aloha Spiced Cacao
2 tsp Urfa biber (Turkish black chili)
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
Salt and pepper to taste
(500ml of tomato passata)
1) Roast the pumpkin chunks with 1 tbsp of olive oil at 200°C for about a half hour until soft. Mash with a fork and set aside.
2) Sauté onions and garlic in the remaining olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pot. Add spices and stir.
3)Add peppers and chilis and cook until almost tender. Pour in beans, pumpkin mash with all the roasting juices, the lime juice, and about a cup of water. if using tomato passata, now is the time to add it. Salt and pepper to taste.
4) Cook for an hour or more until flavours are married. Serve hot with corn bread or over rice. Garnish with fresh coriander if you have any.
Served with fresh corn-muffins, it hit the spot both ways and was tasty, warming and satisfying but not overly heavy. We are just disappointed that with the Challenge in play, we won't be able to make this one again during pumpkin season (unless we cheat and call a time out). We kept this one mild as we were going to share with our 9 month old, so do feel free to spice it up further!