Ooooh, look at that bad boy! We all know the value of a pumpkin as a potentially artistic candle holder, but what about that lesser seen exotic option of actually eating the bloody thing?!? Every Halloween something like an actual billion tonnes of fresh Jack-O-Lantern innards end up in the bin, unloved and uneaten. Ok maybe not quite that much but it is still a lot, and it is an absolute sin. A pumpkin is good eating, fibre packed and high in vitamins A and C. No, fine, they aren’t desperately easy to handle but with patience and a good paring knife you’ll pop that soft yellow flesh out easily enough and may even be surprised at how tasty it is, not unlike butternut squash.
For a really easy option, simply slice a pumpkin into thick wedges, brush with olive oil, season with salt, pepper and paprika and roast in a moderately hot oven for about forty minutes. Delicious with a roast chicken. It goes well in a risotto for the vegetarians, simply cubed and combined with some fresh herbs and plenty of garlic. It makes a kick ass curry base or you can grate it down and sub it into a carrot cake. Make a sweet puree for a pumpkin tart or even try the below for a lovely thick winter warmer.
Eat your pumpkins, people, don’t just chuck them out. Food waste sucks.
Boomboom Pumpkin Soup
Serves two as a main course
Half a medium pumpkin, peeled with seeds discarded.
Two medium red onions
four cloves of garlic
Stalk only of a broccoli- none of the head
Five closed cup or chestnut mushrooms
Good vegetable stock
Red chilli pepper
Tsp Ground mace
Quarter tsp Ground ginger
Dice all your veg.
Fry off onions, chilli (seeds in or out to taste) and garlic in a little vegetable or coconut oil until soft then add pumpkin and cook for a few minutes before adding the broccoli, mushrooms, ginger and mace. Cook for a further two to three minutes, cover in stock and simmer for thirty minutes or until the pumpkin starts to disintegrate. Blend with a stick blender or liquidise then season well with black pepper and sea salt (smoked sea salt perfects this soup if you have it). Serve with crusty bread on a cold all saints day.
Simple.
So simple actually that I just wrote this from my phone app as an experiment, so apologies for any errors in format!
Food. Boom. 