Roasted Pureed Pumpkin

It’s pumpkin season! Pumpkin Pie. Pumpkin Roll. Pumpkin Cookies. Pumpkin Bread. Pumpkin Muffins. And what’s the base for all those things? Roasted Pureed Pumpkin of course!

It’s surprisingly easy to make and since you can make it ahead of time it doesn’t add yet another thing to your holiday dinner checklist.

Pumpkin pie pumpkins are the small pumpkins you start to see in grocery stores in late October. A large carving pumpkin does not have the right texture or taste. Each pumpkin will yield about a 15 oz. can’s worth of pumpkin.

To start you need to remove the stem like you would for a Jack O Lantern then cut the pumpkin in half.

Scoop out the seeds then scrape down the sides to remove the course pulp.

Once the inside is cleaned out, cut the half into thirds and put skin down, in a single layer in a glass or metal baking pan.

Bake at 350º F for 45 minutes or until tender. Remove the pulp from the skin and place into your food processor.

Add 1 tablespoon of water per pumpkin. Process until smooth.

The pumpkin should be smooth throughout. If it appears too dry you can add a bit more water, but you don’t want to overdo it. It should look like this:

These two pumpkins ended up weighing 33 ounces once processed. We will be baking two pies for Thanksgiving, so we’ll just split this in half. The 1.5 ounce difference won’t make a difference in the recipe.

This coming year I plan to try growing some pie pumpkins in the garden. That way I’ll know what went in to my pies from start to finish. However, even with this starting step I was in control of how the pumpkin was processed and know there has been nothing “extra” added.

Roasted Pureed Pumpkin

Ingredients:

• Pie Pumpkins
• Olive Oil
• Water

Instructions:

1. Remove stem from pumpkins.
2. Cut pumpkins in half.
3. Remove seeds and stringy pulp.
4. Cut pumpkin into slices. Lay skin down in single layer in glass or metal pan.
5. Spray or brush pumpkin with olive oil.
6. Bake in 350º F oven for 45 minutes or until pumpkin is fork tender.
7. Remove skins and place pumpkin in food processor. Add 1 tablespoon of water per pumpkin.
8. Process until smooth.
9. Refrigerate for 2-3 days or freeze.