Whether you’ve bought a pumpkin for Halloween or perhaps you’ve grown it because they look so impressive, here are ways to make sure you use every part of your pumpkins.
Zero-Waste Pumpkins
Rather than just carving the pumpkin then throwing it away, the organisers of Light Party (a Halloween-inspired event) Laura Pais and Laura Truter have suggested using your pumpkins for the following:
- Pumpkin Soup
- Roasted Seeds: The seeds are good to roast for later, add in soups, home-made bread or salads.
- Pumpkin Jam: The jam is just pumkin and sugar boiled
- Fertiliser
Healthy recipes
The inside of the pumpkin is good to make soup, jam, cookies or cake. The final remains of the Pumpkin (instead of throwing it away) can be put in a compost bin or taken to a natural spot to decompose and serve as a “fertiliser.”
Light Party’s Laura Pais shares her favourite Pumpkin aka “the winter fruit” recipes here…
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds – Recipe
Pumpkin seeds are a great source of Zinc and can be eaten on their own or in bread and other recipes. Here’s how to roast them.
- Scrape
Scrape the seeds from your pumpkin with a spoon.
- Clean
Pull away the string of flesh and rinse the seeds clean
- Rinse
Rinse in a bowl of water
- Spread
Spread them evenly over a large baking tray
- Gather
Gather what ingredients you fancy – sea salt is essential
- Glug
Put a few good lugs of olive oil over the seeds
- Sprinkle
Sprinkle your ingredients over the top
- Mix
Mix together so your seeds are well coated
- Roast
Bake at 180° C for around 10 minutes, or until seeds are lightly golden brown
- Cool
Leave to cool before you get your fingers into them
- Store
Store in an airtight container
- Use
You can use them in salads, soups, homemade bread…
Pumpkin Soup – Recipe
This pumpkin soup recipe serves 6 people.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped
200g potatoes
1 courgetti (optional)
2 carrots, chopped
2 garlic cloves
800g pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and chopped
700ml vegetable stock or chicken stock
150ml double cream (optional)
Method
- Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large sauce pan, then gently cook two finely chopped onions for three minutes, until soft but not coloured, add garlic cloves and leave for two more minutes.
2. Add the pumpkin, potatoes, courgette (optional), and carrots then carry on cooking for 8/10 minutes, stirring occasionally until it starts to soften.
3. Pour 700ml of vegetable or chicken stock into the pan and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 40 minutes until the squash is very soft.
4. (optional) Pour 150ml double cream into the pan bring back to the boil.
5. Puree with a hand blender. For an extra velvety consistency, you can pour the soup through a fine sieve.
Storage:
The soup can now be frozen for up to two months.
If the Pumpkin Soup is made with cream, it has to be consumed in the next 24 hours.
If not with cream, the Pumpkin Soup can last in the fridge up to three days.
How to Make Pumpkin Jam – Easy recipe
Pumpkin Pie Recipe
We went along to the UK’s largest Pumpkin Patch at the weekend – Farmer Copley’s Pumpkin Festival, where you can pick-your-own-Pumpkin. And we spotted this simple Pumpkin Pie recipe aptly written onto a Pumpkin.
