Other People’s Recipes: Pumpkin!

It’s Fall. It’s October. It’s the season of all things pumpkin. Though it’s only the beginning of the month, I have no doubt that this is only the start of what is sure to be a pumpkin-filled few weeks.

As I mentioned in my CSA Recap post, I got a sugar (pie) pumpkin in my first CSA Box. AND one of my co-workers came in with some sugar pumpkins he picked up from a road-side stand he passed on his commute. Having only ever purchased pumpkin puree from a can, it was high time I learned to roast and puree one from scratch – especially now that I had TWO pumpkins! I used Angela’s tutorial (here) and it worked wonderfully!

After cutting the stem off and scooping out the seeds, I roasted the pumpkins and waited until they cooled before scooping out the beautiful orange flesh.

I followed Angela’s other tutorial for roasting the pumpkin seeds. She only calls for a bit of salt for seasoning, but I added garlic powder, chilli powder and cumin to take it up a notch.

These are so addictive! I had to roast them for almost 10 minutes longer than the tutorial suggests, but it was worth it as they became so crunchy and delicious! And I didn’t burn them.. booyeah! (Ahem, I may have a slight track record of burning things in the oven…)

Keeping with the theme of pumpkin & Oh She Glows recipes, I used some of the (large amount of) pumpkin flesh to make pumpkin butter (recipe here). I wanted to keep some of the puree for other uses so I halved the recipe. I only used about 2T of coconut sugar and used maybe about 3-4T of maple syrup. The result was a fantastic & tasty spread that I’ve been enjoying in my oatmeal and slathered atop my next pumpkin baking adventure: pumpkin bread!

I used this recipe from Gluten Free Vegan Love and the loaf was fantastic! These are the changes I made: coconut oil instead of olive; reduced maple syrup to 1/2 cup; used the suggested portions of brown rice flour & potato starch instead of AP GF flour; and used xanthan gum instead of guar. I chose not to add any mix-ins and to just let the pumpkin flavours speak for themselves. I’m glad I did because this was delicious! I always find that GF/V breads tend to be either really dense, super crumbly, or take FOREVER to cook in the middle. This bread passed on all fronts and is definitely one I’ll be making again! I might try to sub a little of the oil for applesauce next time.. we’ll have to see how that turns out.

Stay tuned for more pumpkin recipes coming this way. Oh yes, there will be more. There was a sale at Goodness Me! on pumpkin puree that I just couldn’t pass up. And now my fridge AND cupboards have more pumpkin that I know what to do with! That’s a lie, I went on a Pinning spree and the # of recipes I want to make > amount of pumpkin I have… What a dilemma.

Happy Thanksgiving!