Last year I carved out four pumpkins, and was astonished at how much flesh I had left over. What to do with it all? This year I'm aiming to be more adventurous with my pumpkins - I'm such a sucker for those orange lanterns! All I know though is pumpkin soup. There's roast pumpkin, a specialty in New Zealand where I come from (in case you missed it, we also hold the rugby world cup. Just saying.).
However, there's two problems with roasting the pumpkin here. First, the pumpkins they sell in the shops in the UK aren't the same as ours. Ours seem to have a deeper, rich, dark orange flesh, which also seems to be denser and less watery.
Second, and more importantly, you need to leave the flesh on the pumpkin if you're going to roast it. And that rather defeats the purpose here!
Of course, the first dish that springs to mind is pumpkin pie. Tamsin has covered this already however, in her Fabulous Halloween Recipes feature HERE. So I won't go over that again. I made a sweet potato pie last year, another American dish. It was certainly interesting.
Pumpkin Hotpot
How yummy does that sound? Well, actually not really at all. Until you actually read the recipe. I would never have thought of putting pumpkin into a hotpot, although it probably isn't that different to using squash.
This recipe at the Hookery Cookery website sounds warming and comforting. The perfect meal for when you get in from a chilly night trick or treating. It could be vegan too if you substitute the chicken stock and bacon.
There's also this another yummy hotpot recipe here, using chicken with the pumpkin.
Pumpkin Fritters
I chose this one because it is fairly quick to do. Cooking time is anything from 10 to 30 minutes, according to the recipe. It is here on the BBC Food website. But also because I'm intrigued by any recipe that includes lager and ice cubes.
If that's a bit too much for you, then this looks like a much simpler approach. This is a South African recipe for pumpkin fritters, and there's not an ice cube in sight.
Pumpkin Fries
Honestly, I am going to die of hunger writing this feature. How utterly gorgeous do these recipes sound? And these are just two - do a google search for pumpkin fries and you'll get a stack of recipes.
The first comes from Hookery Cookery, again. Its Potato and Pumpkin fries recipe comes with a recommendation that they go well with garlic and mustard. Have I mentioned how hungry this feature is making me?
Tiffany at the Gracious Pantry offers up a sort of '2 for 1' recipe. It's for pumpkin chips, but you can use either a savoury or sweet coating depending on what you want to eat the chips with.
Pumpkin Pudding
Pumpkin PuddingHere's a dessert I'd not heard of. Everyone always talks about pumpkin pie, but I've never heard mention of pumpkin pudding. This recipe from The Whole Gang is great if you're having to cater for different dietry requirements as it is dairy and gluten free.
I like that the site gives you options for ingredients, such as using evaporated milk if you don't need to be dairy free. And if you don't have any agave (I have no idea what that is) scroll to the bottom of the page where it tells you how much sugar to use instead.
Pumpkin and goat's cheese lasgne
I found lots of recipes for pumpkin pasta - ravioli in particular. This recipe struck me as a bit different though. Warming, nourishing, and perfect for the autumn. It is from Nigella Lawson, and you can find it printed by the Daily Mail here.
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