How to Cook a Pumpkin (Tasty Tuesday)

I love pumpkin season!  Fall is all about pumpkins for me and I get so excited when I see them in the stores!   (My own attempts to grow them failed miserably this year; maybe it had something to do with the drought.  Very thankfully, we are not relying on our personal garden for food.)

I love cooking with pumpkins!  Pumpkin bread, pumpkin scones, pumpkin pies, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin lattes!  So many things you can do with pumpkins!

Since food loses so many of its nutrients when it’s processed, I try to make what I can at home.  Pumpkin puree definitely qualifies!

Want to learn how to cook your own pumpkin?   Step by step instructions, just for you!   Let me know in the comments what you decide to make with your pumpkin!

Step 1: Select your pumpkin.  Pie pumpkins work best.  They’re smaller and sweet.  I’ve seen code 3134 on them at both Walmart and Central Market, if that helps you.  (I have wandered Walmart before, wondering which kind of pumpkin to use)

Step 2 – Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Step 3 – Cut your pumpkin in half.  Cut a circle around the top to take the stem off.   This might be kind of tough; a serrated knife works best.

Step 3- Separate it into two pieces & clean out the strings & seeds.  Save the seeds to bake if you like!

Step 4 – Place the pumpkin face-down in a pan with about an inch of water.

Step 5 – Bake in the oven for about an hour, until a fork can easily pierce the skin.

Step 6 – Let it cool and spoon out the soft insides.

Step 7 – To make puree, put it in the blender and blend away.  (Do you like the blue tape?  It’s my mom’s blender and she labels everything with blue tape.  That definitely can be helpful at times but I’ll have to ask her why the blender got labeled.)

Step 8 – You’re done!!  Look at your beautiful pumpkin puree!   What are you going to bake now?   I made pumpkin bread with mine.  🙂  Look for a recipe soon!

Join us in the Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods!