The FastDay Forum

I have a lovely big pumpkin on my kitchen window sill which has been busy finishing turning from green to orange. Our employers grow them each year and I've only ever carved them out and put a tea light in them in the past but this year I actually want to TASTE one!!! I've noticed that the top is just starting to show signs that it needs to be used and I'd love some ideas for sweet AND savoury recipes.... I've got enough there to be able to do both. I've got loads of soup in my freezer at the moment. I've got a recipe for a sweet pumpkin pie but that looks quite long and complicated so if anyone knows of a quicker one, that would be useful too....

Ask your fairy godmother to wave her magic wand and change it into a coach so you CAN go to the ball? Be home by midnight mind!

I had a smallish pumpkin and made this semi-sweet bread/cake

http://www.thehealthychef.com/2012/07/p ... n-bread-2/

the other day with about half of it, the rest I cubed and added to a beef casserole .

For the pumpkin bread, I didn't have a lot of ground almonds so I used the small amount that I had and made up the rest of the quantity using gluten-free self-raising flour. I would think you could easily use regular self-raising flour instead of the almond meal too, if you're not gluten sensitive. The loaf, when done, was nice spread with butter and jam - but also really nice with cheese and caramelised onion chutney.

EDIT: I used a fair bit more than a 'pinch' of nutmeg - a good couple of teaspoons probably. That was the only flavouring I put in, and it was lovely.

Oh yes, I second Callyanna's idea - brilliant

:oops: Ask your fairy godmother to wave her magic wand and change it into a coach so you CAN go to the ball? Be home by midnight mind!

hehe Thanks!

Whitelily... as luck would have it I have a BIG bag of ground almonds and was wondering what I could do with them so that recipe will be PERFECT to try... thank you xxx

Don't forget Manderlay's idea of roasting the seeds
Nothing wasted Sue

Pumpkin pancakes

Pumpkin soup is yummy. I don't have a recipe, though.

This is one of my go to recipes for pumpkin...sort of. I was too lazy to do cookies so I modified it to a sort of breakfast cake.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/pumpkins/r/r71015h.htm

Modifications I made:
add a little more baking powder
replace 1 stick of butter with a cup of applesauce
cut back on the sugar - maybe use 1/2 cup
make to two eggs, not one
use 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
add some orange zest
use dried cranberries
sprinkle some raw sugar on top

bake in a cake pan for ~45 min @350 degree F

It would also be good as muffins. Probably closer to 30 min for them.

Very moist.

If you really want something tasty to challenge your willpower, this is it. Tastes like frozen pumpkin pie.

http://www.food.com/recipe/pumpkin-ice-cream-102281

But, my favorite is just to lightly coat with olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and cook in a 400 degree oven. 30 min or so depending on size.

You said you have a big pumpkin. Note that it may not be the best variety for eating. From my experience, the better tasting eating pumpkins are generally small ones. We've been growing sugar pie.

My favorite source:
https://www.google.com/search?q=alton+b ... 2&ie=UTF-8

Tried this too with a sage brown butter sauce. Turned out good.

http://www.theskinnyfork.com/blog/clean ... in-gnocchi

As you can see, I have a lot of pumpkins.

Just to let you know that today was "Pumpkin day"..... And I opted to start with Whitelily's recipe for the low-carb bread. I used ground almonds as the recipe states and it is totally yummy! WELL worth the effort... so thank you very much for that, WL (I did take a photo of the loaf, but Photobucket is down for maintenance at the moment so will upload tomorrow instead)

Not to waste anything, I also roasted the seeds, thanks to Manderlay for that one...

And then I knew I was going to run out of time because I had to go and do the horses, so I roasted the remains of the pumpkin and pureed up the flesh. Left it in a sieve, draining, whilst I visited the herd and I have now divided up into little pots and frozen, so that I can do something at a later date.

Day well spent, I say... and thanks again for all the delish ideas