It's that time of year - my favorite time - fall. And with Fall comes fresh pumpkins. I love pumpkin! And the best part is, they are fairly low in carbs - woohoo!! What are some LC Pumpkin recipes you enjoy?

Hearty Pumpkin Chili

Chili is simply great for fall and winter warmth! Here's a chili recipe that uses the healthy flavor of pumpkin to give it extra flavor and texture. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1lb ground beef
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup green pepper, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 cup pumpkin
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
dash salt


In a frying pan, saute the ground beef, onion, green pepper and garlic until meet is brown. Pour off grease and add in tomatoes, pumpkin, chili powder, cumin, pepper and salt. Mix well. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve with cheese and sour cream as desired.

I made this soup last night. It is now my all time favorite soup recipe! It was so good I even had it for breakfast, lol. Enjoy!!

Low Carb Pumpkin Sausage Soup
Makes 6-8 servings at approximately 9 carbs per serving, only 2 are from sugar. About 12 grams of protein as well

Ingredients
1 (12 ounce) package Jimmy Dean sausage (I used the mild kind)
1 medium onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, chopped (you can definately add more if you'd like)
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin (I used 2 cups fresh baked pumpkin)
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup water

Directions
1 - Brown sausage, drain, then add the onion, garlic, Italian seasoning and mushrooms. Sauté until done.

2 - Add pumpkin to this mixture and mix well.

3 - Stir in the broth and mix well.

4 - Simmer uncovered for 20-30 minutes.

5 - Stir in the heavy cream and water and simmer on low another 10-15 minutes. Taste and add salt & pepper as needed.

I tried the pumpkin chili and loved it. I'd really like to kick it up a notch but I'm bad when it comes to adding anything that's not listed as an ingredient. Is there something you could suggest to make it a little spicier??

Add more chilli podwer, susstitute sausage for the ground beef, add some more inions, chilli peppers, jalapenos, etc...

Is this chunks of a fresh pumpkin? or Pumpkin out of a Can - This sounds really good.

I used the pumpkin out of the can.

Thanks for the tips on kicking it up

Linda Sue's website has this recipe for Beefy Mushroom Soup that has a pumpkin base. It's one of my favs.

I like buying whole fresh pumpkin because then I get to bake the seeds!!!

http://www.examiner.com/x-798-Denve...y-Pumpkin-Seeds

Curious: Does the pumpkin add pumpkin flavor? OR since there is no sweetiner/cinnamon etc, is it more like a squash thing. I like the idea of it making the chili thicker. I believe I will do the pumpkin sausage soup. The weather here has taken a turn for the fall, and I am always looking for good soup/stew recipes.

It definately adds a pumpkin flavor - not overpowering though. I have made the soup 3 times in the past two weeks, everyone keeps wanting me to make it for them, lol. You can use canned pumpkin, but I just baked fresh pumpkins and scraped out the flesh. I baked 3 pumpkins over the weekend so now I have a ton saved in the freezer, lol.

I use it to thicken soups and stews. The pumpkin flavor is mild and usually blends in well with sausage, beef or whatever your meat base is. I haven't found it to be overpowering...even when used with milder flavors like turkey.

I made the pumpkin sausage soup today and it turned out excellent! The only thing I did differently was I used a stick blender when it was finished cooking, to give it a creamy texture. I didn't blend it to smithereens.....just enough to cream it up a bit. Excellent recipe. Thank you for sharing.

I make this as sub for potato salad, dessert or when I'm wanting high fat. Measurements are all eyeball due to batch size.

Ingredients
Pumpkin
Avocado
Mayo
Salt
Black Pepper

Option
Boiled eggs, cinnamon, or paprika

Direction
Cut pumpkin into bite size. Even it out on microwaveable plate and cover with saran wrap (open little airway). Nuke Pumpkin until semi soft or soft. Let it cool. Add bite size avocado (leave some for to mix with mayo) to pumpkin. Mix it with mayo and use salt and pepper to taste.

Serve warm or cold

I only see pumpkin once in while, so use I Japanese squash as a substitute.

If you make it to Colorado some day...I can show you some pumpkins!! (We have a pumpkin farm 2 minutes from our house )

I like to make a lc pumpkin loaf. (I think there is a recipe on linda's site) When done, I slice it long ways and spread with a mix of some cream cheese, vanilla, spenda, whipping cream... just enough to make it spreadable...then reassemble it. Reminds me of pumpkin roll. We all thought it was wonderful.

If you happen to come across this recipe, or have it in your files, could you please share it? This sounds really, really good.....something that I know my family would enjoy for Thanksgiving.