Today is the most fall day of all fall days. The fall colors are at their peak here in Nashville, the air smells like wet leaves, it’s a little overcast and spooky looking, and it’s HALLOWEEN! So of course I had to go all in and make this Chipotle Pumpkin Pasta. This pasta is a little smoky, a little spicy, a little creamy, and lots of delicious. This easy tomato-free pasta sauce is a great way to shake up your pasta routine!
Make it a Meal
This recipe makes four small-ish servings, so I’d probably serve this with a big green side salad to make it a meal. If you need a little meat to make your meal feel complete, I think some browned Italian sausage or chorizo would be awesome in this pasta. You can brown the sausage in the skillet with the onion and garlic, then continue with the recipe as usual.
Pasta Optional
As I was making this sauce, I noted how good it was on its own and how I’d totally be open to eating it as a soup instead of a sauce on pasta. So yeah, you can totally skip the pasta if you want! (This would probably make about 2 servings of soup.)
You don’t have to wait until fall to make this super delish pasta dish! Stock up on canned pumpkin just after the season when prices are low, and make this Chipotle Pumpkin Pasta year-round.
Chipotle Pumpkin Pasta
Servings 4Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1/2 tsp chipotle powder ($0.05)
- 1 15oz. can pumpkin purée ($1.00)
- 1.5 cups chicken broth* ($0.20)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- freshly cracked pepper ($0.03)
- 8 oz. pasta ($0.75)
- 1/4 cup heavy cream ($0.21)
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan ($0.44)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Sauté both in a skillet with the olive oil over medium heat, until the onion is soft and transparent (about 3-5 minutes).
- Add the chipotle powder to the onion and sauté for about one minute more. Finally, add the pumpkin purée, chicken broth, salt, and pepper to the skillet and stir until the ingredients are combined and smooth.
- Turn the heat down to medium-low and allow the sauce to simmer for 15 minutes. During that time, cook the pasta according to the package directions, then drain in a colander.
- Once the sauce has simmered for 15 minutes, turn the heat down to low and stir in the heavy cream. Add the cooked and drained pasta to the skillet, stir to combine with the sauce, and let it heat in the sauce over low for 2-3 minutes.
- Finally, stir in the grated Parmesan, top with a little cracked pepper, and serve.
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Notes
Nutrition
Love savory pumpkin recipes? You should also try our Spicy Coconut and Pumpkin Soup, Curried Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup, or Easy Pumpkin Soup.
How to Make Chipotle Pumpkin Pasta – Step by Step Photos
Dice on yellow onion and mince two cloves of garlic. Sauté both in a skillet with 1 Tbsp olive oil, over medium heat, until the onion is soft and translucent.
Add 1/2 tsp chipotle powder and sauté for just a minute more…
Add one 15oz. can of pumpkin purée (NOT pumpkin pie filling, which is sweetened and spiced).
Add 1.5 cups chicken broth, 1/2 tsp salt, and some freshly cracked pepper. Stir until everything is combined and the sauce is smooth. Turn the heat down to medium-low and let the sauce simmer for 15 minutes. While the sauce is simmering, cook 1/2 lb. pasta according to the package directions, then drain it in a colander.
Once the sauce has simmered down, turn the heat down to low, add 1/4 cup heavy cream, and stir to combine.
Add the cooked and drained pasta back to the sauce and stir to combine. Let the pasta heat in the sauce for 2-3 minutes.
Add 1/4 cup grated Parmesan…
Stir the Parmesan into the Chipotle Pumpkin Pasta, top with a little more cracked pepper, and serve!
Followed the recipe using vegetable broth and more salt and it turned out fantastic. Incredibly filling also. I will definitely make it again.
This was so good! About halfway through making it I realized it’s basically the same recipe as the butternut squash soup I make, just using canned squash instead of roasting it myself. I’ll have to remember that the next time I want soup but I’m feeling too lazy to start from scratch. :)
I’m really excited to make this! What would be a good additional vegetable to add to this? I’d like to add in something green (kale? broccoli? spinach?)
I vote for spinach!
I made this for dinner last night, and it was a winner! This felt like fancy restaurant fare, with the thick and creamy sauce, slightly sweet with with a hint of smokiness. I added some sliced roasted garlic smoked sausage, which added to the flavor nicely. I was pleasantly surprised when all three of my kids were clean platers – no dinner arguing here! Also served with homemade breadsticks. A winner all around! Thanks for another great recipe!!
Yum! Made this recipe vegan with the following swaps:
-veg broth instead of chicken
-coconut milk instead of cream
-nutritional yeast instead of parmesan
Also, instead of chipotle powder used one canned chipote in adobo (diced) plus 1 tsp. of the adobo sauce. Spicy but not overpowering, in my opinion. I used an immersion blender to make the sauce smooth.
Went ahead and used a full 12 oz. box of pasta and still had plenty of sauce!
Great comfort food, boyfriend devoured it :)
As someone who’s on a diet and who furthermore doesn’t care much for pumpkins, I thought this would be a great (read: mildly unpleasant) way to reintroduce pasta back into my stomach without having to contend with the usual pasta problems like quadrupled serving sizes and self-loathing. Aw, crap.
Could I use a minced chipotle chili in adobo sauce to sub for the chipotle chili powder? I have the former in my freezer.
Yes, absolutely. :)
Delicious recipe! Added Italian sausage and got rave reviews! Thanks Beth!
Just made this, definitely new favorite of your recipes! So delicious (and easy!) Thanks for helping to get this broke graduate student through it, I rely on your blog for sure :)
Looks so delicious (and really excited about the coconut milk sub above, too!). Also, totally didn’t realize you were in Nashville – that’s so exciting!
I made this last night! I had opened a can of pumpkin puree a few days ago and was wondering what to make with the rest when this popped up in my feed. I veganized it for my partner, using vegetable Better than Bouillon, and coconut milk instead of heavy cream. I would have used cashew parmesan, but I didn’t have any left.
It was delicious! It’s going into the “to make again” file. Thanks!
This recipe was delicious! just the right amount of pumpkin and chipotle. I ended up doubling the recipe to make a few lunches throughout the week and added some farmers sausage for extra protein.
Thanks for yet another amazing recipe!
Is chipotle powder the same as chili chipotle powder? And if not, where do you find it?
And could I sub regular chili powder?
I’ve mixed chili powder,paprika and sriracha before to sub for chipotle powder and it came out great on the dish I was cooking. I might do that here too!
Your ‘chili chipotle powder’ is probably quite similar. Using chipotle powder would give the mixture a smoky, spicy, taste which would go along with the pumpkin really well. You could use another chile powder but it wouldn’t give it a smoky taste. A chipotle is a smoked jalepeno. Smoked paprika would give it a smoky flavor but it wouldn’t be spicy.
I ended up finding chipotle powder but still found the dish very flavorless. I added half again what it called for and then about 1/2 t of chili powder and that was much better. It still found it underwhelming overall and probably wouldn’t ever make it again.
Seasoning is such an individual matter. You just have to experiment and adjust seasoning until it tastes good to YOU. Remember pasta absorbs flavor like crazy so if you make the dish ahead of time and eat it later, it may taste bland. I’m single so I prefer to make the pasta and whatever sauce I am using separately and then combine however much I want for a meal. Tastes much more flavorful and I often don’t need to use as much sauce at a time. Pasta lasts about a week in the refrigerator just add a little oil after you drain it. Most sauces also hold in the refrigerator. Often I freeze individual portions of pasta and sauces and that works pretty well too.
You might have needed an extra pinch or two of salt, as well. Salt can really help pronounce flavors and helps your tongue distinguish different layers of flavor. So a lot of times when something tastes bland it actually just needs a touch more salt rather than more spices. In this recipe the chicken broth provides most of the salt, but if your chicken broth was lower in salt, it may have needed more salt at the end.
This looks delicious! Would you use any additional liquid if having as a soup instead of a sauce?
Maybe only a half cup or so, it just depends on how thick you like your soup. :) You can make it as directed, and just stir in more as needed at the end.
Under the photo of the pumpkin puree you wrote “sweated and spiced”, guessing you meant sweetened?
LOL! Thank you, yes.