montcarte

Given my adventure at Thanksgiving a few weeks back, and the fact that I still cannot easily find canned pumpkin, plus the abundance of cheap pumpkins being sold everywhere, I decided to finally use some common sense and just make my own pumpkin puree. For anyone who is still buying the stuff in the can (especially during pumpkin season) – STOP! It is easier, tastier and more fun just to do it yourself.

I bought two big pumpkins for about $3 each. I scooped out the seeds (spicy-sweet roasted pumpkin seed recipe to follow!) and strings, cut the pumpkin in half, rubbed some olive oil on them, put them cut-side down on a baking sheet and baked the halves at 425 degrees for about 45 minutes (I kept checking after about 30 minutes). When pumpkin meat was nice and soft, I scooped it out, pureed it with a hand blender, and let all the excess juice drain out.

Voila! One pumpkin later, I had about two and a half liters of pureed pumpkin, ready to be used in any recipe! I froze a lot of it, and baked with a bit of it, just to test it out. The results were fantastic, and to be posted in a few days.

But for now, what I did with the pumpkin seeds I removed:

Spicy-Sweet Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

pumpkin seeds from 1 large pumpkin

1 teaspoon teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground dried chilies
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Olive oil

Combine spices together. Feel free to add more or less of any spice, or to add any spices you’d like.

Coat with olive oil and spread evenly in the pan. Toss them with the spices and roast them at about 325 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until they become crunchy.

It’s as easy as that, and whether you just use a bit of salt or go all out with the spices, they’re going to be delicious.

More on the pumpkin puree soon!