If you’ve only ever ate canned pumpkin, you’re in for a treat! Fresh purée is so much more flavorful and sweet. You can use this purée in any recipe that calls for canned pumpkin. Just keep in mind that homemade purée has a higher water content and you may need to use less or adjust your recipe accordingly.

Also: Scroll to the bottom of this post to see a few foods I’ve made with this fresh pumpkin purée!

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Step by step:

1. Aquire a pumpkin. You want a small, ripe pumpkin. A large carving pumpkin probably won’t fit in your oven.

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2. Cut in Half. You’ll want a large heavy knife for this. Be careful not to cut yourself!

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3. Scoop out the seeds and scrape the sides, like you would if carving a pumpkin. Save the seeds for roasting and compost or toss out the stringy bits.

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4. Preheat oven to 325° F. Place each half of your pumpkin face-down onto a lined baking tray. Bake for 50-60 minutes depending on the size of your pumpkin. You’ll know it’s done when you can pierce through the pumpkin without any resistance, like in the video. Wait about 10 minutes for the pumpkin to cool before you move on.

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5. Cut the pumpkin into 4 sections.

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6. Peel the skin off. If the pumpkin is finished cooking, then the skin should be very very easy to peel off.

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7. The peels. I freeze and save up all my vegetable scraps so I can make my own veggie broth. After I make veggie broth I compost the scraps.

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8. Blend! Just throw the pumpkin meat into a blender and blend. Done! This will stay good in the fridge for up to ~5 days. Or you can freeze it and it will stay good for ~6 months, although the quality will go down overtime. This pumpkin cost me $1.60 and it yielded over 4 cups. It’s pretty cost effective considering canned pumpkin costs about the same for less than 2 cups.

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9. Roast the seeds. Preheat the oven to 325°. For every cup of seeds you have, toss in 1 TBS Olive oil and 1/2 Tsp Salt. Lay the seeds flat on a lined baking tray and cook for about 20-30 minutes, until golden brown. Stir every 5-10 minutes to ensure even cooking. I also added ~1/2 Tsp curry powder to the pumpkin seeds on the right. So good!

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Photos:

Pumpkin pie 😍 I used this recipe: https://thegentlechef.com/classic-pumpkin-pie/

I’ve made this recipe quite a few times now. I only use half the milk it calls for since fresh pumpkin purée has a higher water content. I also add an extra tablespoon of cornstarch to help hold it all together better. I’ve had a few omnis try it and they said they can’t tell that there’s no eggs or heavy cream!

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Pumpkin Curry. I came up with this recipe myself, you can find it here: https://autumnsvegankitchen.com/2019/10/26/pumpkin-curry/

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Pumpkin Sugar Cookies. Recipe here: https://autumnsvegankitchen.com/2019/10/16/pumpkin-spice-sugar-cookies-gluten-free/

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I’ll update this page as I make more foods with this pumpkin purée.

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Autumn ❤️

Follow me on Instagram @Autumn.The.Vegan