GOURD idea
Pumpkins can be used for more than just decoration
With Halloween quickly approaching, you might be headed to one of the several pumpkin patches around Phoenix to pick out the perfect orange squash for carving. But as any seasoned jack-o-lantern maker knows, carving a pumpkin creates two byproducts: pumpkin “guts” and seeds.
Oftentimes, these go straight into the trash. But chef Sasha Raj of 24 Carrots, a vegan cafe and juice bar in Tempe, says there’s plenty you can do with the insides of your jack-o-lantern instead of putting them to waste.
Her suggestion: Cook with them.
“I don’t think people realize how healthy pumpkin is — it’s filled with beta carotene,” Raj says. “They don’t see it as a vegetable because because people don’t use it as a vegetable. But at the end of the day, it is a vegetable.”
She shares tips for cooking with pumpkin and recipes for cooking with the seeds and flesh.
Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds
8 (4 ounces per serving).
4 cups pumpkin seeds (see note)
2 teaspoons chipotle powder
3 tablespoons maple syrup
4 tablespoons oil 1 teaspoon salt (to taste) teaspoon cinnamon teaspoon black pepper teaspoon cumin
Note: Before starting the recipe, stir harvested pumpkin seeds (still slimy) in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, rinse and leave to air-dry before for an extra-crispy roasted
Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
4 cups potatoes, diced large
2 cups carrots, diced large
1 cup onion, diced large 1 cup pumpkin puree ½ cup cashews 2 cups cooking water
½ cup thick coconut milk
¼ cup olive oil (optional)
2 tsp salt 4.
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ cup nutritional yeast 2 garlic cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon pepper or cayenne (optional)
Boil the potatoes, carrots and onion until soft. Reserve 2 cups of cooking water and drain the rest.
Blend potatoes, carrots and onion together with the pumpkin puree, cooking water and coconut milk. Add in remainder of ingredients and blend on high until “cheese sauce” is creamy and smooth. Toss with cooked noodle, top with bread crumbs and bake at 350 degrees until bubbly. Give it a quick broil until the crumb is crunchy and done.
From Sasha Raj
Add cleaned seeds to a pan and dry toast for 5 minutes until light color develops. Remove from heat, add all the flavorings (except salt) into
Choose the right kind of pumpkin
Raj says pumpkins from the patch are bred to have thinner skin and less flesh, so they’re easier to carve. In contrast, “sugar” or “pie” pumpkins have more flesh and thicker skin. They tend to be smaller and can be purchased at the grocery store.
“They work really well for cooking, but you might butcher your hand if your try to carve them,” she says.
Keep the seeds
No matter what kind pan along with oil, stir to coat, and spread on nonstick baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, checking on them occasionally. Remove from heat, sprinkle with salt and allow to of pumpkin you have, the cool.
Mix fully roasted seeds with kettle corn and finish with an extra dash of chipotle powder or smoked paprika.
From Sasha Raj
You can roast pumpkin flesh and make it into a puree, which Raj suggests freezing. “I always get a pumpkin craving a month too late, so this way you can have fresh pumpkin even in March,” she says. The puree can be used for everything from pumpkin mac and cheese to pumpkin rice pudding, and Raj shares these recipes, too.
If you want to eat the stringy “guts” of a cooking or carving pumpkin, Raj says they can be eaten, though the flavor may not be very pumpkin-y. To cook this part of the vegetable, separate out the seeds from the stringy parts and cook the latter as you would spaghetti squash.
“The sky is the limit with this,” she says. “Take your favorite dish, remove one vegetable and add pumpkin.”
Details: 24 Carrots, 1701 E. Guadalupe Road, Tempe. 480-753-4411. 24carrotscafe.com.
Pumpkin Rice Pudding
cup pumpkin puree teaspoon pumpkin spice blend cup sugar cup maple syrup teaspoon vanilla 2 cups cooked rice 1 cup coconut milk 2 cups rice milk Pinch salt 4.
Combine all ingredients in a skillet and heat, stirring gently and mashing rice until creamy, bubbly and a perfectly pudding-like consistency.
Chef’s suggestion: Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of fresh coconut milk on top and some crunchy pumpkin seeds or granola.
From Sasha Raj