Halloween is over....sigh...
And what are you to do with the pumpkins you bought?
Perhaps they were for the kids to carve out...perhaps just a fall themed decoration?
Well I'm here to help you decide what to do with these enormous squashes!
First you take the pumpkins and wash the exterior of nicely...pat dry.
Chop off the stem and slice in half.
The next part should be easy...gut the gourd just like you would if you were carving a pumpkin!
Reserve the seeds in a separate container.
(To save time, have 2 bins going...one for guts and one for mostly seeds)
The flesh of the pumpkin is soft, but its coated in a slimy, sinuey substance.
Scrape this substance off with a big metal spoon and discard.
The flesh is now ready for roasting.
Place the pieces, inside down, on a deep roasting dish with some water.
Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour or until the flesh is mushy and soft.
Use a metal spoon to carve the flesh away from the deep orange rind.
You can portion the flesh out for future use.
Spoon mush into 1 cup cups and freeze in a freezer bag.
Or you can just spoon the flesh into a large container and freeze the whole thing.
You can opt to use a food processor to blend the mush further before freezing if you wish.
(If you blend the mush, it becomes very tricky to get it to stay in the 1 cup forms until frozen)
Use this mush when ever it calls for canned pumpkin.
Use in baking muffins, loaves or pies.
Whatever you do, it is a very healthy vegetable! Loaded with iron, fibre, vitamin A & C and actually contains calcium...
If you prefer roasted pumpkin, skip the whole roasting process and cleave flesh from rind raw.
Chop into 1 inch cubes and freeze in large freezer bags.
Roast later with other root vegetables for a great winter side dish!
For a list of 10 intriguing pumpkin recipes, check out this link to Food.com
A fantastic use for pumpkins is the seeds!!!
Take the container you used for the seeds and rinse the seeds very well.
Take care to remove all orange and stringy bits.
Let seeds soak for a bit in the fresh cold water.
Spread out on a baking sheet or stone.
Add 2-3 tbsp of butter or marg and a bunch of grinds of coarse salt.
You can use parchment paper under if you wish.
Bake at 300 degrees for approx 45 mins (if you use a stone, it will be sooner!)
Just keep checking on them every now and again, giving a stir along the way.
What you have is a great snack that is loaded with fibre, vitamin E and manganese!
You can also adjust the taste of this snack just by sprinkling on a different spice...
Try these:
-garlic powder
-onion powder
-cayenne pepper
-chili powder
-cinnamon & brown sugar
Alternatively, you can also switch up the taste by using other seeds like squash or sunflower.
How do you like your pumpkin?
I don't wash the seeds! I love all the orange and stringy bits- they add more flavour when roasted.
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