Yahoo LifestyleMake the Most of Your Halloween Pumpkin
Pumpkins aren’t just for carving gruesome faces in and then slinging in the bin. Make the most of your Halloween pumpkin with these tips and ideas.
Scoop out the flesh before you carve
One common mistake many people make is to pull out the seeds and orange fibres from the pumpkin and get carving straight away. But if you don’t scoop out all that pale pumpkin flesh, you’re missing out. Scoop out the insides of the pumpkin with a spoon until your Jack O Lantern is about one inch thick. This will also make it easier and safer to carve your design as you won’t need to whittle through a thick layer of pumpkin with a sharp knife. And according to experts, a pumpkin isn’t at its best once it’s been used for decoration. According to Abel and Cole’s food expert Rachel De Thample, “it will probably be almost stale by the time it is brought back inside or the candle has been removed.” Try and use the pumpkin flesh for cooking as soon as you’ve scooped it out, or if you can’t use it straight away, cover, store it in the fridge and use within a couple of days.
[Relevant: How to make delicious homemade pumpkin pie]
Keep the seeds
Pumpkin seeds are a handy and nutritious snack so don’t throw them away. “Roasted pumpkin seeds are great for snacking on,” an expert at Fruit for the Office told us, “just clean them up, brush with a little vegetable oil then roast in the oven at 150 degrees for around 30-45 minutes until brown.” They suggest sprinkling with salt, celery salt, paprika or chilli powder to add flavour. You can use the seeds as a garnish for soups and muffins or once they have cooled, tip into an airtight container for a healthy snack.
Is your pumpkin a carving pumpkin or an eating one?
Did you ever eat the flesh from a large carving pumpkin and found it lacked flavour? This is because carving pumpkins are grown for their size and not for flavour. If you know you want to eat your pumpkin, try a different, often smaller variety. Rachel told us, “carving pumpkins can be eaten (if not used for decoration) but they’re grown much more for size and shape rather than taste. I recommend using the Sunshine Squash, which looks pumpkin-like but is much, much tastier.”
Savoury snacks
Once you have your pumpkin flesh, you can cook it in a wide range of savoury dishes. Pumpkin soup can be enhanced with sweet and spicy flavours, such as coconut milk, chillies, ginger and cumin. Pumpkin can also be diced and cooked in a curry sauce or roasted in cubes and stirred into risottos or baked pasta dishes. If you’re a dab hand in the kitchen, try mashing cooked pumpkin and use as a filling for ravioli or mix with flour, egg and Parmesan and make home-made pumpkin gnocchi. The flavour of pumpkin also works really well with blue cheese or crisp, fried sage leaves.
Sweet treats
We tend to think of pumpkin as a savoury ingredient, but in America, pumpkin is used much more often for making pies and desserts than for stirring into savoury meals. As well as making traditional pumpkin pie, try blending pumpkin flesh to a purée and fold into muffin or cake mixtures. Pumpkin can also be incorporated into cheesecakes, cookies and even used to make Pumpkin Bread.
