Pumpkin...how do you cook it?

[chauber]

The title says it all. In working on trying all the the allowable veggies on Induction, I bought a pumpkin and am wonder how do you cook it (Induction legal that is)?

[not2late]

Originally Posted by chauber

The title says it all. In working on trying all the the allowable veggies on Induction, I bought a pumpkin and am wonder how do you cook it (Induction legal that is)?

Georgiana has a thread in the OWL forum about a Japanese pumpkin. The recipes there are essentially Induction friendly.

(Hokkaido pumpkin)http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/forums/ongoing-weight-loss-owl/80413-hokkaido-pumpkin.html

[mizski]

I just cooked up TEN sugar pumpkins yesterday! (Make sure you have the eating pumpkins and not the jack o' lantern big type...they don't taste as good.)

Anyways, what I do is:

• Get out a jelly roll pan that will fit the 2 halves of the pumpkin. You need a pan with sides all around--not the totally flat cookie sheets.
• Wash pumpkin & remove any labels.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Split the pumpkin in half from stem dot to the dot on the bottom (don't know the official name of these. LOL)
• Schmear a little veg oil on cut edge or spray edge with cooking oil spray (NOT PAM).
• Put cut side down on jelly roll pan
• Bake at 350 for AT LEAST one hour. The pumpkin needs to be VERY soft when you put a knife thru it. I baked mine for closer to 1 1/2 hours and they were about 7"ish in diameter.
• Remove from oven and carefully flip them over with a spatula and oven mit.
• Let cool.
• Carefully scrape out the seed/fiber stuff. I use a grapefruit spoon to loosen it up then a big spoon to scoop it out. You can either throw this stuff out or pick out the pumpkin seeds to make...pumpkin seeds.
• Cut along the cut edge (about 1/8" to 1/4") to remove the browned edge.
• Scoop out the pumpkin pulp into a big bowl. Be careful not to get any of the pumpkin skin.
• If you notice that your pumpkin is very wet, you can put it in a colander and let it drain (press down on the pumpkin meat very gently to get out more water) OR you can put it in a pot over a low heat to evaporate the water. Be very careful not to scorch the pumpkin. I use the colander method.
• Mash pumpkin or put thru a potato ricer. I use my Mom's old potato ricer with a crank handle. It makes the pumpkin very smooth.

I make a lot of pumpkin and then measure it out in 1 cup portions and freeze them in freezer bags. If you make sure the pumpkin baggies are nice and flat/smooth, they stack beautifully in the freezer. Frozen pumpkin is good for up to 1 year.

I just fresh pumpkin.

[mizski]

Oops...I guess I read your post wrong. For some great pumpkin recipes there is Georgiana's thread that Megs mentions and some great ideas from Nigella's web site (Nigella's Pumpkin Heaven (recipes)) too.

[chauber]

I think I bought the kind that is meant for eating. It is not as large as the jack-o-latern type and has some kind of non-Atkins friendly recipe on it.

I was thinking of baking it and putting some butter and bacon in it...anyone tried that? Does pumpkin taste like any other veggie. The only way I have ever eat it is in pumpkin pie. I am looking forward to a pumpkin soup as well.

EEK! I just looked up the carb count...6.3 net carbs for a half-cup. I think that if I like it I will have to treat this as a treat.

[mizski]

Sounds like you got the baking pumpkins. In FitDay: Pumpkin, cooked from fresh, 1/2 c. mashed is 5 net carbs.

It is a higher carb veggie but is very good for you. I have it a couple of times a week and it has not affected my weight loss. YMMV (I hope not though)

Plain mashed fresh pumpkin tastes very similar to butternut squash...a tad sweeter though. It is tasty just mashed with butter or used in a zillion different recipes, both savory and sweet. I sometimes have the mashed with butter for breakfast with some sausage or a pork chop and drizzle a little SF maple syrup over all. Good stuff.

p.s. Pumpkin soup is fabulous!

[liv]

when I get pumpkin I get it canned (pure pumpkin canned) Somewhat carby but very high fiber content and also a good source of beta carotene. So I like it.
I make the cream cheese pumpkin thing (mix cream cheese and pumpkin with splenda and cinnamon and just super enjoy.

[SunnySmile501]

I think pumpkin tastes like baked sweet potato. I just add a little butter, salt and pepper and have some really filling, comfort food. That is what I eat when craving heavy comfort food like mashed potatoes.

[chauber]

Thank you all for the ideas. The net carbs that I listed were straight from DANDR2002. If it tastes like butternut squash or sweet potatoe...yummy! I love both. I think that I am going to cook it tonight.

Thanks again.