For the Love of Pumpkins
November 5, 2011
I’ve always had a thing for pumpkins. Eating them, decorating with them and now growing them, too. For the last couple years, we’ve purchased the fancy, funky looking pumpkins at the market, used them and saved their seeds to plant the next year. Some have been pretty good eating, some are better used for Jack-o-lanterns or other decor.
Well, I think I’ve found my favorite for eating (so far). I think it’s a Jamboree. About 9 to 11 pounds, gray-blue-green in color and a flat round with light ribbing.
This is the pumpkin I used in my earlier “fighter pilot scarecrow” post as the helmet. It had so much meat inside that I needed a crowbar to get the lid off. I hollowed out what I could (and it was quite a bit) and saved it for baking. I spread the chunks onto a foil lined pan and sprinkled it lightly with salt and then about a teaspoon of sugar and cinnamon (skip the sugar if you’re using for savory stuff). Then I dotted it with butter and covered it tightly with foil. Into the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes (longer if you’re using large pieces). Then I removed it from the oven and left it covered as it cooled.
After it was cool I put it into the food processor and gave it a whirl. No draining off water or anything that I’ve experienced with other pumpkins said to be “good for baking.” It was sweet, thick and delicious as it was. But then I started adding it to EVERYTHING…
Pumpkin muffins, pancakes, smoothies and oatmeal, oh my. It was sweet enough that little to zero extra sugar required. I even whipped it into softened cream cheese with some extra pie spices. Soooo good. I used it on everything from bagels and toast to banana bread as a vessel for it. Yum.
Then I started using more of the raw pumpkin, chunked up in savory recipes. Adding it to minestrone soup, sauteing with portobello mushrooms and tossing with pasta and parm cheese and even layering cooked chunks into a lasagna that had kale instead of spinach.
Well, needless to say, we saved the seeds of this gray-green beauty and I hope it does well in our little pumpkin patch next year. I do need to try a few of the others to see if they are good eating, however. Pictured above, a “turks turban” is next!
