Cookpad’s Pumpkin Rescue Mission
Join us on our mission to prevent this year's Halloween pumpkins being wasted. We have lots of zero waste pumpkin recipes for you and we'd love to hear your ideas too!
The beginning of autumn brings a change in our eating habits, relating especially to the variety of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables that we can find in the markets and supermarkets. A clear example of this is pumpkin, which is highly appreciated for its sweet taste and the versatility it presents, from making velvety pumpkin soups to baking sweetly delicious pumpkin pies.
Halloween, at the end of October is a time closely linked to the pumpkin as it is traditional to hollow out the big orange vegetable, carve a ghoulish face into it and light the inside with a candle 🎃 This is a fun activity to do with children, but it is also a task that brings out the artist in our grown ups who create incredibly intricate pumpkin designs at this time of year.
The current global situation leads us to think and rethink the use of the pumpkin when it comes to these holidays. Do we really put them to good use after we’ve carved them? What do you do with the pumpkin seeds and flesh scooped out of the pumpkin to make the decoration? Is it thrown away? Plus what of the pumpkins that have been grown for the Halloween season that will not be purchased this year? In addition to this, it is reported that over half of the 24 million pumpkins grown in the UK this year will be destined for food waste (www.theguardian.com).
What can we do to save the pumpkins from waste?
Today we want to encourage you to help us save the Halloween pumpkins and reduce food waste as part of our #cookeverypart campaign. Pumpkins are very affordably priced at this time of year so it is a great time to focus on purchasing them for your everyday cooking. Plus, use up any edible parts of your own carved Halloween pumpkin to help reduce the amount of pumpkin discarded this year. Please note, pumpkins marked 'for decorative purposes only' are not fit for human consumption. We recommend choosing one of the small to medium sized eating pumpkins for your cooking.
How to prepare for cooking your pumpkin recipes
The first thing we do with a pumpkin when using if for a decoration is to hollow it out (scoop out its insides) and this is the point at which much waste occurs. So before discarding those pumpkin insides, let’s think of some ideas to use them in your kitchen instead!
Let's start with the flesh, which is the most precious part of the fruit. The flesh is the orange pulp below the skin and without the seeds - so separate the seeds out and put them to one side - we’ll use those later!
You can cook the flesh (and the stringy insides) in different ways, boiling is good if you want to make a plain puree for making pumpkin pie. Or roasting is an excellent way to caramelise more flavour into your pumpkin, this is great if you want to make a soup or stir small chunks into a risotto. You can roast your pumpkin with fresh herbs such as woody winter rosemary stems to give even more flavour.
Savoury pumpkin recipes
Let’s start with this fabulous recipe for simply Roasted Pumpkin Chips from Yui Miles, serve these as a side dish or on their own in a big bowl as a delicious snack.
Here in the UK we love making a winter warmer soup with pumpkin. You can find lots of pumpkin soup recipes from our home cooks here. Pumpkin pairs particularly well with coconut milk in soup, you can try that for yourself by trying Sonia’s Coconut and Pumpkin Soup.
Did you know that cooked pumpkin flesh also make a superb, creamy pasta sauce? Try Sam’s vegan recipe for Pumpkin Pasta Sauce here.
Sweet pumpkin recipes
The soft sweet flesh of the pumpkin also lends itself beautifully to sweet dishes and our home cooking community has come up trumps with some drool worthy recipes to inspire you.
Pre-cooked pumpkin flesh makes superb pumpkin muffins and cakes. Find lots of pumpkin baking recipe inspiration here.
If you’re not sure about pumpkin in a sweet dish, then these Pumpkin Pancakes with a Butterscotch Sauce from Katie Davies will win you over!
Or how about this Pumpkin Pie with Cream and Maple Syrup from carriecooksbest. Find many more pumpkin pie recipes from our home cooking community here.
Pumpkin seed recipes
Don’t discard those seeds that are inside your pumpkin, these seeds are a prized part of the plant and you can use them in sweet or salty recipes. You could even dry them out and use them to grow your own garden pumpkin patch next year!
A super simple way is to make roasted pumpkin seed snacks, they will be gorgeously crunchy and toasted. The perfect appetiser!!
Yui’s Roasted Pumpkin Seeds recipe uses simply salt and pepper and a drizzle of honey.
Or try Vicky’s delicious sounding Garlic and Paprika Roasted Pumpkin Seeds.
You can also use your roasted seeds to top salads, granola or yoghurt. Or use them in savoury dishes such as Isabel’s Potato Croquettes Stuffed with Cheese and Pumpkin Seeds.
Pumpkin skin recipes
Did you know that pumpkin skin is also completely edible? Make it into chips using Sonia’s recipe for Salted Pumpkin Skin Chips. Or leave the skin on when roasting your pumpkin as a side dish - gently rub some oil into it before cooking and simply eat the whole vegetable when served.
After Halloween …
When Halloween is over and you have had a few days to admire your pumpkin decoration, it will be time to remove it. But still now is not the time to throw it away!
The first thing you need to do is clean your pumpkin really thoroughly, don’t forget that it has been exposed possibly outdoors and may contain some dirt. Once clean and dry, you may need to cut out any scorched patches from the inside if you used real flames to illuminate your pumpkin. You can now lightly rub some olive oil into the outer skin, roast it lightly and when it is softer you can use the remaining flesh to make one of the recipes above.
We hope our article has inspired you to make good use of the pumpkin surplus this year. We didn’t have room to feature all of the amazing pumpkin recipes that have been shared by our home cooking community - but if you check out our pumpkin recipe search results, you’ll see even more ideas including pumpkin bread, pumpkin risotto, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin spice smoothies and more!
Share your own pumpkin recipes on Cookpad using the hashtag #cookeverypart. Or if you cook one of the recipes shared by our home cooks, please remember to take a photo of your finished dish and send them a Cooksnap on their original recipe.
Let’s save the Halloween pumpkins together!!
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