I've never made pumpkin puree out of fresh pumpkins, but this year I was inspired to try. The week before Halloween, I bought two big pumpkins for 5 dollars. On the evening of October 30, we carved them into Jack-O-Lanterns. We also put the seeds out to dry so we could have one of my childhood favorites- roasted pumpkin seeds. Yummy and nutritious, and a great snack to enjoy while you wait for trick or treaters. (In my case, so I would not nibble on the candy I bought for them!)
The day after Halloween, I made the puree. I used this method. I spent about an hour and a half of hands on time cutting, peeling skin, running chunks through the food processor, and more time when oven time was considered. All together it took about three hours to do, including cooking time.
From my two big pumpkins, I got 30 cups of puree. I'm storing them in bags in the freezer. That's equivalent to fifteen cans of pumpkin, which would cost about 16 dollars. That's not bad for five dollars spent. Even when my time and the electricity to run the oven and food processor is considered, I think that's a nice bargain. We love to eat pumpkin muffins, and I always make several pumpkin pies for Christmas and Thanksgiving. I felt great using all the pumpkin. What we did not use we put into the compost heap. It makes me feel much better than simply throwing it away, which is what I usually did in the past once it got ooky.
3 comments:
I had no idea you could get that many equivalent cans out of two pumpkins! Needless to say, we've never tried it. We usually buy our pumpkins early and use them for decoration as they rot from the inside out : )
Perhaps I'll mosey down to the market and see if anyone has pumpkins marked down still?
Great job! I also find that, though time consuming, I'm making so much puree ahead of time that I can later pull out of the freezer and use for pies, muffins, bread, etc. It really can become as convenient as pulling out a can of pumpkin from the store. It's healthier and more economical too!
YUM! and think of all the tin cans you *won't* be buying this year! :)
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