All the talk about banana bread reminded me. Our $1 Halloween pumpkin that my daughters wanted to cook up after Halloween turned out great. We drew the face on this year instead of cutting it into a Jack O Lantern, so we could still cook it up later. The pumpkin yielded us 3/4 cup of roasted pumpkin seeds and 21 cups of pumpkin puree to use toward our pumpkin bread, pumpkin pies, etc., for this holiday season.
I haven’t checked the prices on pumpkin puree this year, but I am certain we wouldn’t be able to buy 21 cups worth of pumpkin puree for anywhere near $1, and roasted pumpkin seeds are really expensive here considering how easy they are to cook.
I posted how to roast pumpkin seeds on an earlier thread, so I won’t repeate that here. I will tell you all how we made our pumpkin puree. It is really easy to make yourself. While there are several ways you can make it, I think the roasted version has more flavor.
Homemade Roasted Pumpkin Puree
Cut pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds and the strings, reserving the seeds to roast. (For a large pumpkin you may want to cut it into four chunks instead of two.) Place the pumpkin on a cookie sheet skin side down and sprinkle with salt. Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes until fork tender.
Remove from the oven and let cool. Peal the skin off the outside, and cut the pumpkin into small chunks. Use a food processor to process the cooled pumpkin in batches into a puree.
I package up any of the pumpkin puree I am not going to use within the week in pint size freezer containers (about 2 cups each) and freeze them, so we have it to use for any recipe using pumpkin puree.
If any of you have any great recipes using pumpkin puree to share, please do so as I have lots of it to use! I would especially like to find some recipes for pumpkin muffins or cupcakes.
We had the Arroz Con Pollo again last week. I was wondering if you have ever just made the rice part to go with another meal?