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I had some leftover pumpkins decorating my front porch this week and I decided they must be used! Last year, we made these cute Turkey crafts with them. This time I decided to cook them up!
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| This one has no idea what’s coming. |
I always thought that only sugar/pie pumpkins were good for cooking, but I was wrong! A bit of researched showed that regular pumpkins of any size work just as well. Theoretically, they’re not as flavorful, but I didn’t notice!
Wash off the pumpkins, especially if the kids decorated them with washable paint. 🙂 Cut them open and clean them out, separating and reserving the guts and seeds. Small pumpkins can be cooked whole. Halve medium pumpkins and quarter the larger ones. Bake on a lightly greased cookie sheet (no water needed) at 350 for 45-60 minutes. Cool a little and the skins will easily peel right off! I pureed the pumpkin without any water and they turned out great. Dry pumpkin may need a bit of water to make it smooth though. The pumpkin “guts” can be steamed and pureed right along with the larger pieces. Use for baby food, in place of applesauce/oil in baking, or for all those wonderful pumpkin fall recipes! Seeds can be roasted, of course. I learned that boiling them for 10 minutes first and then patting them dry before baking makes sure they cook evenly and crisply.
by Stephanie, The Multi Taskin' Mom
This Post Has 2 Comments
I’ve never thought about cooking up my uncarved pumpkins. I’ll have to try this next year. Thanks for sharing at Food on Friday!
Yup, I usually buy sugar pie pumpkins for my decor for this very reason. Jack-0-lantern ones are so stringy and bland they’re really only worth bothering with for the roasted seeds but the sugar pumpkins are pretty tasty. We have a recipe called “Dinner in a Pumpkin” we sometimes use in the fall where you fill the scooped pumpkin with instant rice, beef broth, hamburger and veggies and bake the entire thing in the oven then scoop it out. Mmm.