Hubbub - How to eat your pumpkin (2024)

FAQs

Hubbub - How to eat your pumpkin? ›

You can eat all of the pumpkin - except for its stalk. Whether you can eat the skin or not depends on the variety.

Remove the stem with a sharp knife. Cut the pumpkin in half to make it easier to scoop out the seeds and scrape away the stringy mass. Cut the pumpkin into chunks. Cook until soft in boiling water, in steam, in a pressure cooker, in a microwave or in an oven.

Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper (add any other spices you'd like!) Roast at 375 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until pumpkin cubes are fork-tender, flipping halfway through. You can also add it to soups and curries or in any recipe that calls for winter squash.

Technically, you can eat a carving pumpkin. But it won't taste very good. "Carving pumpkins have a woody texture and are stringier than pumpkins intended for eating," says Ilyse Schapiro MS, RD, CDN.

Depending on what type of squash you are using you might not need to peel it, with thinner skinned squash such as butternut squash you can eat the skin. For thicker skinned squash it is often easier to cut the squash into large wedges, roast, and then peel the skin off after it's cooked when it's softer and easier.

Spoiler alert – it's a trick question! The correct answer is that ALL parts of the pumpkin are edible (although you wouldn't want to eat the dried stem – yuck!). Pumpkins are in the squash family, called “Cucurbits,” and all parts of all squash are edible – leaves, vines, fruit, seeds, skin and roots!

First off, all parts of the pumpkin- the flowers, leaves, stems, seeds, flesh, and skin- are edible! If you grow your own pumpkins, you can collect and eat the leaves and flowers. The flowers can be eaten raw or you can use them in salads, pancake batter, or by frying them.

Cut the pumpkin in half to make it easier to scoop out the seeds and scrape away the stringy mass. Cut the pumpkin into chunks. Cook until soft in boiling water, in steam, in a pressure cooker, in a microwave or in an oven. Check for doneness by poking with a fork.

The jack-o'-lantern pumpkin is also a different variety than the pie pumpkin and not truly designed for eating. These decorating pumpkins are stringy, coarse and not as “meaty” as other varieties. Pie pumpkins are thicker, meatier (making them difficult to carve) and offer more pulp for pureeing.

How long does a pumpkin take to cure? ›

The curing period should be about 10 days. During this process, the fruit skin hardens, wounds heal and immature fruit ripens – all of which prolongs the storage life. Pumpkins should be stored in a cool, dry place. Ideal temperatures are between 50° and 60° F and relative humidity of 50 - 70%.

You can do either, but we've found that a jack-o- lantern lasts much longer with a hole in the back. Use a large ice cream scoop or spoon to remove the guts. Smooth the insides with a clay modeling tool or a large spoon. Begin carving your masterpiece!

Pumpkins that end up in landfills have a hard time breaking down because landfills function to store material and don't have much oxygen to allow organics to decompose properly. When organic materials don't have enough oxygen to break down, they release methane gas, a greenhouse gas that is harmful to the environment.

The flesh of big pumpkins is perfect for soups and curries. The flesh of smaller pumpkins, squash and gourds is best suited for pies, breads and cakes - although it's also delicious in a soup. Smaller pumpkins tend to be more flavoursome, less fibrous and less watery.

It involves nothing more than cooking canned pumpkin on the stove for a few minutes. This trick works because adding heat to the purée releases the natural pumpkin flavor, elevating it from barely there to wow.

Yes, pumpkins can be eaten straight away once harvested, but if you plan to keep them for longer you'll need to cure them first and store them correctly.

First off, all parts of the pumpkin- the flowers, leaves, stems, seeds, flesh, and skin- are edible! If you grow your own pumpkins, you can collect and eat the leaves and flowers. The flowers can be eaten raw or you can use them in salads, pancake batter, or by frying them.

Many people scoop out the whole seeds and roast them — shell and all — as a snack. However, those sold in grocery stores are typically shelled. That's why commercial varieties are a different color, size, and shape than ones you might prepare at home. Even so, pumpkin seed shells are safe for most people to eat.

Although most people prefer eating them cooked or roasted, you can also eat pumpkin and pumpkin seeds raw. Still, key differences set apart raw and cooked varieties, especially in terms of taste, texture, and nutritional value. This article explains how raw and cooked pumpkin and pumpkin seeds compare with one another.