Step 1

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Step 2

Cut the pumpkin in half. With a spoon scrape out the seeds and pulp from the center. Place all the seeds into a bowl (you can roast them later). Place pumpkin on a baking sheet (face up or face down) and roast for 45 minutes, or until pumpkin is fork-tender. They should be nice and light golden brown when done. Allow to cool 10 minutes and then peel off the skin from the pumpkin and place the pumpkin flesh in a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer. Add the butter to the bowl with the pumpkin and mash the pumpkin well with a fork or use your mixer to mash the pumpkin. Add the chipotle chile pepper, chili powder, smoked paprika, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Mix well and then stir in the flour and egg. Mix well, until combined. Fold in the cheddar cheese.

Step 3

Grease a baking sheet with olive oil and place the sweet potato chip crumbs in a shallow bowl (I recommend pulsing the chips in your food processor if you want very fine crumbs - like bread crumbs, but you can also just stomp on the chip bag with your feet, the turn the bag over and repeat). Scoop about 1 heaping teaspoon of the pumpkin mixture onto a spoon and then use your finger to push the mixture of the spoon into the chip crumbs. The pumpkin mixture will be wet, but this is fine. Roll the pumpkin mixture in the chips and coat well. Shape into a small ball. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all of the pumpkin mixture is gone. Spray the tots with cooking spray. Bake for 15 minutes and carefully flip the the tots over and bake another 10-15 minutes or until golden and crisp.

Step 4

To make the avocado blue cheese ranch, combine all ingredients except the blue cheese in a food processor and blend until creamy, scraping down the sides occasionally when needed. Taste and season additionally if desired. Then fold in the blue cheese. The avocado ranch can be stored in a seal-tight container for 1-2 days.