Pumpkin

PUMPKIN

Pumpkin unfortunately is a seasonal ingredient, but nonetheless extremely delicious and good for you!  It’s signature fall and can be used in a great variety of ways even I wasn’t aware of until just recently.  Pumpkin is high in vitamin A, vitamin C, fiber, beta-carotene, and potassium.  It also helps with skin health and can prevent wrinkling. The seeds contain tryptophan, which produces serotonin helping our mood, and are also high in protein.

Roasting your own pumpkin is well worth the effort.  I must admit I hadn’t done it myself until this year.  I always reverted to using the canned pumpkin for convenience, but now that I know the difference I will always take the time to roast my own whenever possible.  The taste is so much better and it’s just better for you.  It’s really easy, here’s how it’s done:

- Cut the top of the pumpkin off (stem side) and then cut in half. 

- Remove guts and seeds and set aside

- Scrape out middle with a spoon to make sure to remove all of the guts

- Cut pumpkin into wedges and bake with a little olive oil and salt at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until tender

Use roasted pumpkin for any of the fun fall recipes I’ve provided below; I promise it’s worth the extra effort!

Roasted White Pumpkin Soup

1 medium roasted pumpkin

4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup shitake mushrooms

½ white onion

½ shallot

1 clove garlic

1/8 cup cider vinegar

1/8 cup honey

Salt to taste

Balsamic vinegar

 - In olive oil sweat onion, shallot, and garlic.

- puree pumpkin, vegetable broth, mushrooms, onion, shallot and garlic in a food processor or a blender.  In a large saucepot heat all ingredients over medium heat for 30 minutes. 

- Stir in cider vinegar and honey and salt to taste.

- Serve and drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar

Pumpkin Banana Protein Shake

 

½ cup vanilla almond milk

1 cup fresh roasted pumpkin, frozen

1 banana, frozen

1 tbs honey

1 cup vanilla greek yogurt

cinnamon to taste

nutmeg to taste

1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

- In a blender combine all ingredients, blend until smooth, adjust seasoning as necessary

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Seeds from 1-2 pumpkins

1-2tbs olive oil

Salt to taste

- Gut and clean out the insides of 1 or 2 pumpkins, remove all strings from seeds

- Lay a paper towel in the bottom of a colander, place seeds in and let sit overnight to dry out

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees

- Remove seeds from colander and mix with olive oil and salt in a mixing bowl

- Lay out on a baking sheet and place in the oven

- Check after 10-15 minutes, if starting to brown mix them up, shut oven off and let sit in the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until crunchy