Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil or pure beef tallow (such as Fatworks Pure Tallow)
- 2 cups chopped yellow onion (about 1 large onion)
- 1 medium green bell pepper, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ pounds grass-fed ground beef or bison
- 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
- ½ 6-oz. can tomato paste
- 1 14-oz. can pumpkin puree
- ½ – 1 cup chicken broth or water (homemade or store-bought)
- 2 ½ tsp. dried oregano
- 2 Tbsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Directions
- Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add oil and saute the onions and peppers, stirring occasionally, for about 7 minutes or until onions start to soften.
- Add the garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds or until fragrant.
- Add the ground beef. Use a spatula or large spoon to break it up as it cooks. Cook until meat is nearly cooked through, about 8-10 minutes.
- Transfer meat mixture to the slow cooker.
- Add remaining ingredients and stir.
- Set heat to LOW and cook for 6-7 hours. Serve with desired toppings.
I've made dozens of pumpkin pies, soups, cookies, etc with fresh and canned pumpkin. It's one of the few products on the market where the canned goods are just as nice as the fresh when it comes to recipe outcome. Now I'm not sure if there's a great difference in brands when it comes to quality, but I usually get Libby's.
To OP's point of wanting more pumpkin flavor, lightly fry the puree with some salt and MSG (or another umami component such as soy sauce or fish sauce) with a pinch of nutmeg and allspice. Balance with acid of choice (apple cider vinegar or black vinegar work very well, but honestly any will do) and you should get more pumpkin flavor out of your puree.
Oh man I’ve never heard of this technique, I love that idea and I will for sure try that out!
Mostly what you're doing here is balancing out the salt and acid levels of the pumpkin puree while carmalizing the sugars in it. The nutmeg and allspice accentuate the flavor and evoke pumpkin pie and since those spices are so synonymous with pumpkin in our minds, it helps make it taste "more pumpkiny". You could also use cinnamon here, but I find cinnamon is so noticeable that it will swing the flavor from "pumpkin" to "pumpkin pie" which may not work for every dish. Everything is added in very small amounts, I'll say. The result shouldn't taste salty, acidic, sweet or spiced, we're talking pinches and quarter to half teaspoons of ingredients to a 32 Oz can of puree.
Edit: there also needs to be an amount of fat for a rounded flavor profile, but I don't mention it here because I assume whatever dish I'm adding this to usually has that component in it. I also omit parts of this process if the recipe is going to do it anyway, such as in a blended curry or soup.