Pumpkins In The Pantry: Puree, Pumpkin Spiced syrup, Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, Soup, Canned Pumpkin Chunks & More! (Recipes Included)
Pumpkins are cool! You can use the entire thing and make such wonderful and tasty recipes. You can create pies, sauces, syrups, fruit leather, soups, stews, curry, smoothies, lattes and even pizza with the humble pumpkin.
We grew three beautiful pumpkins this year, a miracle by my standards. My track record with growing pumpkins has been a complete failure up to now. I have been curious about how much food this will yield.
I was quite pleased with the results. I ended up with a big pot of pumpkin soup, 7 pints of purée, 1 quart of purée, 7 quarts of cubed pumpkin, 1 pint of pumpkin spice syrup, 3 sheets of fruit leather & a large jar of roasted seeds. I also saved a good amount of seeds for replanting. The dogs snacked on some of the cooked pumpkin scraps and the chickens had the rest. There was no waste.
not shown: Fruit leather in dehydrator!
Here's what I made and I'll link to specific recipes for you as well.
Seeds for planting
Yes! We save seeds around here so we made sure to save the biggest best seeds for planting next year. It's really easy to save the pumpkin seeds. Just wash them gently until all the pulp is removed and lay on a cloth to dry. Peel away from the cloth and continue to dry for about three days and then stick them in a glass jar and label it. Easy!
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
We love to roast the seeds and snack on them. I like to toss the seeds lightly in olive oil and then sprinkle with salt before roasting.
Give the dogs and chickens some pumpkin
Our dogs love pumpkin, in a really intense way. I was bumping into molly as she camped close to my feet in hopes of catching anything I dropped. The chickens go nuts for it too. They've had their fill of pumpkin today.
Canned Pumpkin Chunks
We made seven quarts of pumpkin chunks. We have limited freezer space and so we decided to stick one of the pumpkins in jars. Apparently it is unsafe to can pumpkin purée, there is worry that the center of the jar will not reach the correct temperature necessary to kill all possible dangerous bacteria. I decided to follow the warning and canned the chunks. Recipe
- German Cream of Pumpkin Soup (Kürbiscremesuppe) This soup was really good.
Around 3pm I got really hungry and realized we hadn't eaten anything yet today. It made sense to whip up a soup using some of the pumpkin I had just cooked! I sautéed some garlic and onions, added the pumpkins and a bit of vegetable stock, seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika. I threw in a little bit of corn and garnished with a swirl of balsamic reduction, some roasted pumpkin seeds and freshly grated nutmeg!
Pumpkin purée for freezing or transforming into amazing things. We did the following using the pumpkin purée.
- Fruit leather in the dehydrator - recipe
- Pumpkin spice syrup for coffee (or eating from a spoon). I always hear about pumpkin spiced lattes and I've never had one. This syrup is going in my coffee tomorrow. Recipe
- Pumpkin pie filling .... I didn't get to the stage of turning the purée into pumpkin pies. Feel free to share your favourite pumpkin pie recipe with me.
- pumpkin purée for freezing. Directions for freezing
How To Make Pumpkin Purée From Scratch
Slice the pumpkin open. Scrape the inner wall and scoop out the seeds & pulp. I just take a big spoon and rake it agaist the inner wall of the pumpkin. It takes no time at all for the seeds and stringy bits to come lose. Set the seeds/pulp aside for washing/separating the pulp from the seeds.
Slice up the pumpkin in the manageable chunks and spread it out on roasting sheets. Don't forget to I lined mine with parchment paper but you don't need to.
Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes at 350 degrees until soft when you poke the skin with a fork. You can do this on a grill or bbq on the lowest heat - although I usually place a cast iron pan under the cookie sheet to elevate it from the flames when doing so.
Scrape the soft flesh from the pumpkin skin and blend or use whatever tools you got to mash it into a smooth purée. You might need to add a bit of water if using a blender (I did not need to).
Season to your hearts content (if desired) and transform into a sensational savoury dish or something decadent and sweet.
Building a greener, more beautiful world one seed at a time.
Homesteading | Gardening | Frugal Living | Preserving Food| From Scratch
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Pumpkins! I love pumpkin everything! We had no luck in growing any this year. Squash yes, pumpkins no. You will love the pumpkin syrup. Great in coffee and on waffles! To buy pumpkin here is outrages. $6.00 per can! No way. I will be waiting until next season and try to grow them again. Have you tried pumpkin butter? It is great on toast and I even spread some in my cinnamon buns...
I've never made or tasted pumpkin butter but it sounds like exactly the kind of thing I should be making! Thanks for the suggestion!
I guess we should grow some pumpkins next year. We used to but those were not tasty at all, I don't know why. Wow should look for other seeds and try it out. I'm going to check out those recipes! Thank you so much @walkerland, this is very helpful!
I am just so happy to finally have some pumpkins. Each year something would go wrong and I was so disappointed. I think everyone has a certain thing that they just can't seem to grow. Pumpkins were definitely my challenge crop. Hopefully I can do better next year and grow even more. :)
That is totally normal, even though it hurts to see the plant is not growing. Each land is different, not every plant is suitable for each type of land. My neighbor grew a 50 kg pumpkin this year, actually he has more than one. Can you believe it? And he just plated the seeds in the beginning of spring and nature did the rest.
Oh, the pumpkin spice syrup sounds divine!! I'd have never thought of making that. Now I need to go buy a pumpkin since I totally forgot to plant any ;)
I'm just having it in my coffee now. I love the spice flavour but I am on the fence about the sweetness. I don't usually sweeten my coffee so its a bit much for my early morning routine I think! My husband likes it so he is happy! :)
This post got me pretty excited! I love pumpkin pies! I think it is great all of the things that can be done with pumpkin.
I was so excited to have finally grown some. I keep finding new ways to use them! Wish we could share some pumpkin pie with you!
The pumpkin vines that escaped the garden did really well, especially the white pumpkins. I got 5 big pumpkins, but the squirrels damaged 3 of them. I must have gotten a dozen white pumpkins, medium size. The Kakai, a hulless seed pumpkin, was done in by the squash borers.
I've contemplated preserving one of them, but we will see if I can find the time and energy.... The variety was Howden, an old heirloom type.