Veggie Chili Stew in a Pumpkin

Every year for the past eight years at least, I’ve served up some kind of meal in a pumpkin. This weekend, the British Columbia sky became brooding and gray, so it seemed fitting to snuggle in and cook something cozy. So after sending my four-year-old out to get the sugar pumpkin that has been on display with the Chinese/Japanese lanterns, I came up with a plan for it. As usual, I just worked with what I happened to have, so this is an alteration of a real recipe. I like this recipe because it’s more vegetable-laden than typical chili, so it’s easier to eat.

Vegetarian Chili Stew in a Pumpkin
1 sugar pumpkin

2 cups butternut squash

2 medium onions, diced

2 cups chopped celery

1 pepper, chopped

1/2 jalapeno chili, minced (I used some Frank’s hot sauce)

2 minced cloves of garlic

1 can of diced tomatoes

1-ish cup of pasta or tomato sauce

1 can kidney beans

1 pkg of ground round (or ground meat if you eat meat)

1 diced zucchini

1 cup diced mushrooms (I didn’t have any)

1.5 tsp chili powder

1.5 tsp cumin

Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper to taste

Lime juice & cilantro as garnish

Instructions:

1. Scrape seeds and pulp out of pumpkin. Rinse seeds and spray lightly with cooking spray on a pan. Season to taste (we used salt, cumin, chili powder, pepper, etc.)
2. Bake pumpkin at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours (depending on pumpkin size). I just cooked it in a pie tin this time with no water. It turned out well and was completely cooked in that time frame. Cooked the seeds for about the last 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Meanwhile, in a large pot, I sauteed the diced squash and just tossed in the other ingredients as soon as I had them chopped up. Let it stew till the pumpkin was done.
4. Let 4-year-old scoop the stew into the pumpkin.
5. Added lime juice and cilantro and a sprinkling of roasted pumpkin seeds at the table.
6. (usually I use the pumpkin itself in my dinner-in-a-pumpkin recipes. This time I also used squash, but later scraped out the pumpkin and mixed it in to the left over chili).

Ironically, I posted this same recipe last year but forgot. I used to use a totally different stuffed pumpkin recipe involving rice and asparagus. Maybe next time!