What did you say you put in this?!?!?
That's the kind of reaction you might get if you tell people about the secret ingredient.
Just keep it to yourself.
Seriously.
My family eats this about every other week or so during cold months, and they still have no idea about the secret ingredient.
As a matter of fact, when I prepare this, I quickly open the Super Secret Ingredient's can, empty it into the pot and quickly (& quietly) throw it into the trash, making sure it ends up covered by something else.
Why keep it on the down-low?
Because
- It's very, very tasty
- It's super, duper easy
- It's fairly cheap
- It's really, really healthy
- It sounds disgusting
I don't want to ruin a good thing!
So, what's the Super Secret Ingredient?
PUMPKIN!
Yep, it's pretty low carb and it thickens up the chili beautifully while adding all the vitamins and health aspects of pumpkin.
JUST BE SURE that you don't buy Pumpkin PIE FILLING.
Only buy 100% Pure Pumpkin.
The pie filling type has added ingredients, including sugar. AVOID.
**This recipe is for a HUGE pot of chili. This amount typically feeds my family of 5 twice. After all, chili always tastes better on day 2 or 3, right? Half it up if you want to make a smaller amount. It also freezes quite nicely if you want to have some now and save half for another meal.
Ingredients:
1 lb ground/bulk pork sausage**
1 lb ground beef or venison
1/2 cup chopped onion
4-5 Tbsp chili powder (to taste)
4 tsp cumin
1-2 tsp garlic powder (to taste)
16 ounces tomato sauce
15 ounce can 100% Pure Pumpkin
4 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
Use quality sausage. I bought cheap sausage one time, thinking it would be all mixed up anyways, so it wouldn't really matter. It did. The chili wasn't nearly as good with poor quality sausage.
Here's the recipe:
In a large pot like this, brown both meats with onions:
Crumble the meats as you cook them:
Drain off extra grease before adding all the other ingredients:
Mix thoroughly, heating through well on medium-low heat.
Add salt and pepper to taste as your final step,
adjusting any other spices to taste, as well.
If your gang likes the heat with their chili,
you can add sugar free hot sauce
or some ground cayenne pepper.
This should be done from start to finish within 30 minutes.
So easy!
NOTE: I adapted this from a recipe found at Linda's Low Carb Menus and Recipes.
Additional suggestions:
Top with cheese, sour cream, green onions.
Serve with Fritos or tortilla chips for the non-low-carbers in the house. They will love you for it.
Try it out and tell me what you think in the comments.
Did you keep it a secret from your family, too?
