• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index
    • View All Recent Posts
    • Soup Recipes
    • Instant Pot
    • Food in Bowls
    • Salads
    • Vegetarian
    • Pasta, Rice + Grains
    • Dinner + Entrees
    • Desserts + Sweets
    • Appetizers + Snacks
    • Drinks
    • Holidays
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
  • Gardening
  • About
    • About Karen
    • Receive Email Updates
    • Contact Karen

SoupAddict.com

Soup recipes, salad recipes, lots of food in bowls

October 22, 2015

Turkey Pumpkin Chili

Delicious and filling, our favorite autumn squash adds richness and body to healthy turkey pumpkin chili.

Turkey Pumpkin Chili in a soup mug

It’s pumpkin season (and pumpkin spice overload season, lol), but I’ve done surprisingly little baking. Zero baking, actually, unless you count the icky packaged cornbread mix I used to serve with today’s turkey pumpkin chili. (Tip: don’t bother with a mix – not to be all DIY-y or anything, but homemade cornbread is easy enough to make; you don’t need a gross mix. But I digress.)

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, so I just haven’t been feelin’ the baking vibes, but I *have* been feeling all the cozy fall pumpkin feels.

And then three times in one day, pumpkin chili recipes landed in my social media feeds.

Freshly cooked Turkey Pumpkin Chili in a white Dutch oven.

Pumpkin chili? Whaaa?

I had to try it!

I went with a recipe from Honestcooking.com, and tweaked the ingredients and cooking technique to maximize all the spicy flavors for my turkey pumpkin chili. I was sort of side-eye skeptical about the pureed pumpkin, right up until I added it to the pot.

Why pumpkin works in chili

And then it all came together and made complete sense. The pumpkin adds amazing texture — something that’s often missing in turkey chili — plus just a touch of sweetness that’s not at all cloying. Chili masters often add sugar to their chili creations — the pumpkin takes care of that very nicely!

I used canned pumpkin puree, but you can absolutely roast a pie pumpkin yourself and scrape out the flesh (and we might have to, if Libby’s projected shortage comes to pass). I also think that most any roasted winter squash — butternut, kabocha, acorn — will substitute just fine.

Two soup mugs filled with Turkey Pumpkin Chili

This healthy and flavorful turkey pumpkin chili will be in regular rotation this fall and winter — the spice palate and texture is wonderful, and it’s exactly the kind of comforting meal you want to hover over when the weather turns chilly.

Editing this post here in 2018 to add that this is one of the recipes from this blog that is, indeed, constantly on the menu at Casa SoupAddict.com. We love this chili, and leftovers make the perfect winter lunch!

Karen xo

 

Turkey Pumpkin Chili in a soup mug
Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Turkey Pumpkin Chili

Lean turkey and pumpkin make a fantastic, comforting - and healthy - chili. A great prepare-ahead meal, turkey pumpkin chili tastes even better the next day.
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time1 hr
Total Time1 hr 15 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 312kcal
Author: SoupAddict

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive coconut, or avocado oil
  • 1 small white or yellow onion diced
  • 1 red or orange bell pepper diced
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 pound lean ground turkey
  • 4 links chicken or turkey breakfast sausage sliced thin
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika pimenton
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 6 ounces pumpkin beer
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • 1 14 ounce can pumpkin puree not pie filling
  • 1 15 ounce can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 15 ounce can great northern or cannellini beans
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano or marjoram
  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon your favorite barbecue sauce
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

suggested toppings

  • sour cream
  • grated cheddar cheese
  • sliced green onions
  • tortilla strips

Instructions

  • Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a 4 or 5 quart stock pot or dutch oven over medium until shimmering. Add the onions and peppers and saute until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl or plate.
  • Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the pot and let heat for a few seconds. Add the ground turkey and sausage and cook until the turkey is browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain off most of the liquid, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pot. Return the vegetables to the pot.
  • Scootch the meat and vegetables to one side, and let the liquid pool on the cleared side (or, add a glug of oil to the cleared side). Pour the chili powder, paprika, and cumin onto the liquid/oil, and stir to create a paste. When fragrant, mix into the meat and vegetables.
  • Increase heat to medium-high, add the pumpkin beer, and saute until most of the liquid has evaporated.
  • Add the chicken stock, pumpkin puree, tomatoes, beans, oregano/marjoram, sugar, and barbecue sauce. Stir well to combine and let the mixture come to a gentle bubbling.
  • Reduce heat to maintain a simmer - bubbles should break on the surface without sputtering - cover partially, and let cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
  • Taste, and add salt and pepper as needed.
  • To serve, ladle into roomy bowls and top with sour cream, cheese, green onions, and tortilla strips.

Nutrition

Calories: 312kcal

Pin Turkey Pumpkin Chili recipe for later:

Pinterest fans, if you’d like to save this recipe for later, use these images (or any image above) to pin to your boards (they’re small here, but thanks to the magic of the interwebs, they’ll be full size when you pin them). Thanks for sharing, and most of all, thank you so much for reading this post! Blogging wouldn’t be any fun without you!

Turkey Pumpkin Chili - Recipe at SoupAddict.com

Turkey Pumpkin Chili from Soupaddict.com

Filed Under: Autumn, Dinner + Entrees, Food in Bowls, Soup Recipes, Vegetables

Did you make this recipe? Take a photo, post it on social media and tag me, @soupaddict. I'd love to see how you made it your own!

Most Recent Recipes

Cauliflower Rice Blend

Cauliflower Rice Blend

Chickpea Peanut Stew

Chickpea Peanut Stew

Bowl-lickin' vegan brownies

Bowl Lickin’ Mocha Vegan Brownies

Three bowls of Creole Lentil Soup

Creole Lentil Soup with Andouille Sausage

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Cher says

    October 23, 2015 at 12:36 pm

    I must admit, I give a HUGE eye roll every time I walk into certain coffee shop and see the PSL… but pumpkin chili with pumpkin beer could make me feel the love 🙂 (Now I must go find pumpkin beer).

    Reply
    • SoupAddict says

      October 23, 2015 at 12:45 pm

      You and me both – spied at the grocery today: pumpkin spice marshmallows and pumpkin spice Twinkies. The world has gone mad.

      Reply
      • Cher says

        October 29, 2015 at 1:59 pm

        Came back to say that I made this for dinner last night and loved it. Even better on the second day. I threw in a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, a couple of dried Tien Tsin chilies and some chocolate-chili powder because that’s what I had on hand (sounds strange, but it worked).
        This one’s a keeper…

        Reply
  2. Jill L. says

    February 8, 2016 at 9:27 pm

    I made this this past weekend, and even my squash hating husband loved it! I haven’t decided whether to tell him there was pumpkin in it. 😉

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Food in Bowls

Hoppin' John Rice Bowls | SoupAddict.com

Hoppin’ John Rice Bowls

Spicy Shrimp and Saucy Guacamole Ramen Noodle Bowl

Guacamole Goodness Bowl | SoupAddict.com

Guacamole Goodness Bowl

Avocado Cherry Tomato Ramen Noodle Bowl | SoupAddict.com

Avocado & Cherry Tomato Ramen Noodle Bowl

Browse by Month

Footer

SoupAddictKaren Gibson is the head soup chef, vegetable chopper-upper, and dishwasher here at SoupAddict.com, where she shares recipes for all manner of foods-in-bowls. Read more

Stay connected

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Sign up for email updates!

Copyright© 2019 · SoupAddict. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy

Affiliate Disclosure
SoupAddict.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.