How to Cook Fresh Pumpkin

Part I:  Making Pumpkin Puree

This blog is for my great-nephew, Ethan.  A few weekends ago, the extended family was sitting around the table eating a pumpkin cake that Aunt Sally made.  Someone asked what kind of cake it was and Aunt Sally told them it was pumpkin.  Ethan looked stunned and said, "You can make food out of pumpkins????"  So I thought I would show him how to make some food from a pumpkin!!


First you need to get some pie pumpkins.  These are small pumpkins made for eating, not for carving.  Theoretically you CAN make pumpkin puree out of jack-o-lantern type pumpkins, but you are risking taste and texture.  Here are the pumpkins I used:

Make sure you clean them off, then cut the tops off (just below the stem).  After that cut the pumpkins in half from top to bottom.  It should look like this:

Here comes the fun part, scraping out all the goop inside the pumpkin.  I found it best to use a sturdy spoon and just scrape around the inside of the pumpkin.  The little stringy stuff is difficult to separate from the wall of the pumpkin, but it will eventually break away.  Toss all of the guts into a separate bowl and save for roasting the pumpkin seeds (see Part II of this series, coming soon).  Once cleaned out, it should look like this:

Now cut each half into several pieces and put them on a cookie tray, like this:

Bake these in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.  The pieces should be fork tender when done.

Let the pieces cool until you can handle them with your hands.  At this point, the skin of the pumpkin should peel right off the flesh.  If it needs a little help, use a knife to scrape the flesh from the skin.  

All that is left to do is put this through a food processor or a food mill.  I actually used my immersion blender because I didn't feel like dragging out the food processor.   

The trick is to get a good consistency.  You don't want it too watery or it won't bake up right in recipes.  If your puree is too watery, just strain it through cheesecloth or a fine strainer.

I will be using this pumpkin puree to make some pumpkin goodies in my next blog!!  Keep an eye out for it.