Pumpkin

It's Thanksgiving in the U.S. and that means this ingredient gets to shine as pie! Here in Australia the notion of eating pumpkin as other than a savory food is hard to get our heads around. 

I for instance have never ever had a sweet pumpkin pie, the idea is incredibly intriguing. Yet I have had roast pumpkin everytime we have a Sunday roast. So, for this months ingredient I thought I would share pumpkin with you as a savory option for your healthy Thanksgiving meal this year.

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How to Use?

Pumpkin is an extremely versatile vegetable and extremely easy to grow. So long as you have lots of water, manure and a sunny patch in the garden any pumpkin vine will be quite at home. 

Once grown a pumpkin can be stored in the dark part of your pantry whole for many months. Just make sure the stem is short and woody, and once cut it must go straight in the fridge. A good tip once cut is to dust the exposed flesh with a little cornflour and then wrap in plastic wrap. This will help prevent mold.

Uses for pumpkin include:

- mashing (with potato is nice)
- roasting (in chunks, skin on - and you can eat the skin!)
- boiling 
- puree (babies will love the sweetness)
- soup (see recipe below - an absolute fav here in Oz)
- risotto (cube and add as flavoring)
- pasta (cube and add to a creamy sauce - nice with bacon)
- baked goods (hide in a cake or make pumpkin scones - see recipe below)
- curries (cube and add to Thai dishes or Indian curries)
- dry the seeds for trail mix

Which do I buy?

There are so many varieties of pumpkin and lots of pretty colors as well. Some are better to use for certain recipes than others, for example for a lovely sweet soup butternut squash would be better as it purees well, whereas a more robust firmer variety like Queensland blue in better for roasting.

As there are so many click on this link and it will take you to a great site listing lots of varieties.

Buying canned pumpkin is also quite acceptable as most varieties are additive and preservative free. The best canned sups to buy are:

- Bookbinders Vegetarian Butternut Squash & Mushroom Soup
- Pacific Natural Foods Organic Butternut Squash Bisque
- Health Valley Butternut Squash Soup

Recipes

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Scones

Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients

1 tbs butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup mashed pumpkin (cold)
2-2 1/4 cups self-raising flour

Method

Beat together butter, sugar and salt using an electric mixer.
Add egg, then pumpkin.
Stir in, by hand, sifted flour.
Turn onto floured board and cut.
Place onto heated floured tray and cook on the top shelf of a very hot oven (220 to 250C) for 15-20 minutes.
Serve with a dollop of butter!

Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients

30 g butter
2 onions
2 medium potatoes
750 g pumpkin
600 ml chicken stock
1 cup milk
salt and pepper
cream
chopped chives, coriander or parsley

Method

Chop onions, peel and dice potatoes and pumpkin.
Heat butter in soup pan and saute onions until soft.
Add potatoes, pumpkin, milk and stock.
Cover and simmer gently for about 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Puree with a stick blender and add salt & pepper to taste.
Add cream if desired and reheat gently.
Serve garnished with a dollop of cream and herbs.

Special Note

You can cook pumpkin for this scone recipe very quickly and easily with your microwave. Cut pumpkin pieces into large chunks and place in a microwave safe dish.
Sprinkle with a little water and plastic wrap.
Cook in microwave on your ovens settings for cooking fresh vegetable's (or until soft when pierced with a knife). It should only take a couple of minutes.
Mash as you would potato.

MOO Roast Pumpkin Seasoning

Roasting pumpkin is dead easy, just chop into large chunks, skin on, shake in a bowl with oil and then place in roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and roast until tender and brown.

What is extra yummy is if you sprinkle your pumpkin with this seasoning. Your kitchen will smell divine come Thanksgiving lunch!

Add equal parts of the following to a spice grinder and sprinkle liberally:

salt
sugar
dried garlic (or garlic powder)
pepper
dried rosemary
dried parsley

This is also delicious on baked chicken or a roast chicken!

Roast Pumpkin