Put that Halloween pumpkin to tasty use with this easy trick
This best-of Lean and lovin' it column originally ran Oct. 27, 2015.
It would be hard to imagine that you haven't already had your fill of pumpkins, and yet, Halloween's still four days away. Like everyone else in my neighborhood, we have a pumpkin sitting on our front steps, along with potted chrysanthemums. Once again this year, we didn't carve our Halloween pumpkin; we're going to eat it instead.
What? Really? Yup. Here's my story.
Last year my partner, Nan, brought our decorative pumpkin into the house the day after Halloween. She scrubbed the surface with running cold water and dried it.
With a 12-inch, very sharp chef's knife and a rubber mallet, she cut our still-in-good-shape, no-carved-face Halloween pumpkin in half. She scraped out the seeds inside like everyone does with squash and set the pumpkin seeds aside.
Nan lightly oiled a half-sheet pan with olive oil and placed the pumpkin halves flesh side down onto the tray. Then, using spring water, she poured enough water into the tray to be about ¼-inch deep. Into a preheated 350-degree oven, it went for about 45 minutes (for a larger pumpkin, it could be 60 minutes).
When Nan thought it was done, she pulled the sheet pan out of the oven. Using a sharp knife, she jabbed the pumpkin halves in their thickest parts. The knife slid in easily, and there were brown spots on the pumpkin's skin. It was done.
While she let the pumpkin halves cool to a safe-to-handle temperature, Nan turned to the pumpkin seeds she'd scraped out before roasting. Thanks to a neat trick from King Arthur Flour's website, we learned to simply toss those covered-in-pumpkin-pulp seeds into a bowl with water and with a wire whisk (it can be done with an electric mixer, too) whip the seeds around for about 30 seconds (with a mixer) to a minute (with a wire whisk).
After mixing, the pumpkin pulp sinks to the bowl's bottom, and the seeds float to the top, where you can scoop them out of that bowl and into a wire mesh strainer.
After draining, the pumpkin seeds can be tossed with a bit of olive oil, spread out on a baking sheet and roasted for about 25 minutes. After removing the pan from the oven, lightly salt the seeds, let them cool, and they're ready to enjoy.
While the seeds roast, Nan scraped the pumpkin's roasted flesh from the pumpkin's skin and pureed it. She froze some of the puree for later use in pumpkin bread and pumpkin soup.
The next day Nan turned the remaining pureed pumpkin into pumpkin chili.
Pumpkin chili?
Yes.
Nan's pumpkin chili came from a recipe she found on the internet, and it's similar to an all-vegetable chili, except Nan uses lean ground beef. For me, chili just isn't chili without some meat, preferably beef.
Nan loads her chili up with onion, peppers, garlic, zucchini, butternut squash, tomatoes and - yup - pureed pumpkin. If you haven't made your own pumpkin puree, that's OK - canned pumpkin puree works well, too. Just make sure you don't get pumpkin pie mix; you'll want the pure puree.
Nan seasons her chili with a touch (a single teaspoon) of pumpkin pie spice, but her chili does not taste like pie.
Of course, you can bump up the heat of your pumpkin chili or add your personal touches, like grated sharp cheddar cheese and sour cream as garnish. Give it a try.
• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at 1leanwizard@gmail.com.