This robustly flavored vegetarian chili features three kinds of beans and pumpkin puree for a luxurious texture and fabulous fall flavor. So good you won’t miss the meat!

Here’s a hearty fall recipe for you, full of ingredients you probably already have in your pantry! Just because it’s vegetarian doesn’t mean it’s bland, as this chili proves.

It’s that time of year.

The temperatures are dropping. The markets are heaped with pumpkins. Your pantry is stocked with stacks of canned beans and tomatoes that you probably bought back in April and have since forgotten about (or maybe that’s just me?)

Needless to say, this hearty and healthy vegetarian chili is just what you’ve been craving this fall.

Our first batch was simply a vegetarian three-bean chili, sans pumpkin. And while the flavor was spot on, the texture was a bit watery, which, for something like chili, isn’t ideal. At least in my mind I always imagine a thick and hearty stew, so we made our notes and shelved the recipe for another day.

The next time around, inspired by a windfall of three giant cans of canned pumpkin from Costco (and a little push from our devoted facebook group), we decided to add pumpkin puree to give the soup some added body and richness; it makes for a luxurious texture, with just a hint of sweetness and subtle pumpkin flavor (don’t worry, this is by no means pumpkin spice chili… because that would be taking things entirely too far.)

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