What is your favorite pumpkin flavored food?

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Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,906 Member
    So yeah, like I said: pumpkin flavoured things aren't a thing here. But I cooked a pumpkin soup with a small hokkaida pumpkin yesterday, garam masala and chili spiced. I eat it with pumpkin seeds and falaffel, with a bit chunk of nice bread. Yummy.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,260 Member
    Google thinks Queensland Blue are blue, and we carve the orange ones.

    I can confirm from real life experience that Queensland Blue are indeed blue skinned ( the name is not a misnomer! 🤣)- a sort of dusky grey blue.

    I have not seen orange skinned pumpkins here in Australia, you can possibly get them but not common, and I don't recall ever seeing one.

    I have never made a pumpkin pie nor recall anyone else doing so - which I suppose is odd, considering we do use pumpkins ( real ones, not canned) for soup, as a roast veg, an ingredient in breads, scones etc
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,089 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Thanks for that.
    What you are calling butternut squash we call butternut pumpkin then and that is what I use for soup and roasts. Some people use Queensland Blue which look like the sort of pumpkins you carve out for Halloween in US. You also get Kent pumpkins which look similar but smaller and skin is more greenish.
    Halloween pumpkin carving is not much of a thing in Australia either and Halloween itself is not as big of a thing as it is in US.
    Canned pumpkin is not a thing at all to my knowledge.
    However you don't have to buy a whole pumpkin, supermarkets have them cut into pieces, so I would usually buy a piece that is about half a butternut pumpkin.
    You can also buy bags of pre diced pumpkin pieces

    Google thinks Queensland Blue are blue, and we carve the orange ones. :smiley:

    j59q87qveh9j.png

    34g2dranc97l.png

    Speaking of blue squashes, my mother once found a Blue Hubbard squash while on a walk, and made the best pumpkin pie ever (I'm not normally a fan) but my mom lost the recipe she used that year and was unable to recreate it.

    rrwofj3rtbol.png

    I've seen the blue Hubbard in stores and farm stands occasionally, but they were always so huge they seemed impractical for me. I usually go for butternut or acorn squash, as I can find them small enough to be just two servings.
  • PeachHibiscus
    PeachHibiscus Posts: 163 Member
    do you mean Americans like pumpkin spice mix in things but not actual pumpkin??

    The US is huge and different states and regions have different climates and cultures. Where I live, tons of pumpkins and other squashes are grown and they are used for cooking and baking, as well as for decor. As soon as September hits, the floodgates open and you will see pumpkin products everywhere - made from actual pumpkins, not the spice mix.

    Pumpkin soup, as well as butternut squash soup, is served in restaurants. I also saw pumpkin chili in a few places. Every restaurant or diner that serves breakfast will have pumpkin pancakes and waffles. It's a deluge of pumpkin anywhere baked goods are sold - pies, doughnuts, muffins, breads, cheesecake, cakes, cookies. Pumpkin roll is a local favorite. You bake a very thin pumpkin sheet cake, ice it with a cream cheese filling, and then roll it up and slice.

    Both of my grandmothers made a dish from green pumpkins. They would shred the green pumpkins, cook down the meat, and then mix it with sour cream and bacon. They made a similar dish using turnips. It's hard to find green pumpkins in the supermarkets but it's easy to find them at any of the local farms, especially if you go to one in Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish country. There you'll find all of the above mentioned foods with the addition of pumpkin whoopie pies, pumpkin custard pie, pumpkin butter, plus any number of foods made from crookneck squashes.

    And speaking of squashes, you'll see a lot of the "winter" squashes on the menu - roasted acorn and butternut squashes, mashed squashes, spiralized butternut squash "noodles." Spaghetti squash is amazing. Cut it in half, roast it, then take a fork and shred it, and serve it up like spaghetti.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 3,561 Member
    edited October 2023
    In my area of the country, we have lots of pumpkin things, too. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin cereal, pumpkin pie, and of course, pumpkin roll. We also have pumpkin spice things. I think McDonald's has had pumpkin fried pies, but I don't think they were popular. My favorite is pumpkin creamer in my coffee, but I load up every year at Trader Joe's on pumpkin flavored cereal(like Cheerios),pumpkin pecan oatmeal, pumpkin almond milk, pumpkin biscotti, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin protein bars, and anything else that looks interesting. Tried pumpkin tea, don't buy that anymore.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Thanks for that.
    What you are calling butternut squash we call butternut pumpkin then and that is what I use for soup and roasts. Some people use Queensland Blue which look like the sort of pumpkins you carve out for Halloween in US. You also get Kent pumpkins which look similar but smaller and skin is more greenish.
    Halloween pumpkin carving is not much of a thing in Australia either and Halloween itself is not as big of a thing as it is in US.
    Canned pumpkin is not a thing at all to my knowledge.
    However you don't have to buy a whole pumpkin, supermarkets have them cut into pieces, so I would usually buy a piece that is about half a butternut pumpkin.
    You can also buy bags of pre diced pumpkin pieces

    Google thinks Queensland Blue are blue, and we carve the orange ones. :smiley:

    j59q87qveh9j.png

    34g2dranc97l.png

    Speaking of blue squashes, my mother once found a Blue Hubbard squash while on a walk, and made the best pumpkin pie ever (I'm not normally a fan) but my mom lost the recipe she used that year and was unable to recreate it.

    rrwofj3rtbol.png

    I've seen the blue Hubbard in stores and farm stands occasionally, but they were always so huge they seemed impractical for me. I usually go for butternut or acorn squash, as I can find them small enough to be just two servings.

    Not only are they impractically huge, but an axe is the easiest way to get them open, and not everyone has an axe lying around :lol:

    You can also smash it open on the ground:

    https://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to/packages/food-network-essentials/hubbard-squash

    ...When you want caramelized chunks of Hubbard squash, you’ll have to cut it and peel it before roasting. Cutting a Hubbard squash is not only difficult, but also, it’s dangerous. You would need a knife the size of a machete, the strength of a weightlifter and some magic to give it a flat side so it won’t roll around while you’re trying to cut it.

    The easiest way to open a Hubbard squash is to let the squash do the work for you. Place the Hubbard squash in a bag (or place a towel on the ground) and raise the squash over your head. Drop the squash on the towel on a hard surface, and it'll crack open. Then follow these directions for roasting. You can use the roasted squash to make soup or in any dish calling for roast squash.

    **************

    You can also pre-soften the skin, shown after the machete, ax, and saw options:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Hn0y11iFQdc
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,069 Member
    Once a year, I treat myself to a Costco pumpkin pie.
  • no1racefan2
    no1racefan2 Posts: 90 Member
    edited October 2023
    I am so fascinated by this thread! I love learning how things are seen/used differently around the world.

    I do a lot of baking and I use canned pumpkin (not the pre-seasoned pie filling). I like to try new pumpkin or pumpkin-spice things that I see pop up in stores. I thought pumpkin spice Cheerios were gross, but pumpkin spice Life cereal was yummy!

    I buy butternut squash (which I never knew was called pumpkin in other parts of the world) already cubed, either fresh or frozen, and roast it for a side. I've never bought a whole butternut squash because I'm intimidated by it, lol.

    I also buy one or two orange 'Halloween' pumpkins to decorate my front porch with each year. I used to carve them with my family but I've lost interest in that mess.
  • AnnF99
    AnnF99 Posts: 16 Member
    Probably only pumpkin pie, I wanted to try pumpkin latte, but unfortunately, I haven't tasted it yet
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    I am so fascinated by this thread! I love learning how things are seen/used differently around the world.

    I do a lot of baking and I use canned pumpkin (not the pre-seasoned pie filling). I like to try new pumpkin or pumpkin-spice things that I see pop up in stores. I thought pumpkin spice Cheerios were gross, but pumpkin spice Life cereal was yummy!

    I buy butternut squash (which I never knew was called pumpkin in other parts of the world) already cubed, either fresh or frozen, and roast it for a side. I've never bought a whole butternut squash because I'm intimidated by it, lol.

    I also buy one or two orange 'Halloween' pumpkins to decorate my front porch with each year. I used to carve them with my family but I've lost interest in that mess.

    @paperpudding these are examples of foods that have pumpkin spice but no pumpkin-the-squash.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    I usually make pumpkin cranberry orange muffins this time of year. I'm in Massachusetts, Cranberry Country, and they are harvested this time of year, so double seasonal for me.

    The link to the recipe I use is broken, but this is similar, except it calls for 2 C sugar - 400 grams - for 24 muffins and I only use 135 grams of sugar, for 12 muffins. Also, I use 200 g cranberries for my 12 muffins and she only uses 120 g for her 24 muffins. I use part of a whole orange and chop it in the food processor with the cranberries, like I do for cranberry/orange relish, so that adds sweetness to the cranberries.

    https://thebusybaker.ca/pumpkin-cranberry-muffins/
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,091 Member
    Evidently not everyone enjoys good Winter squash as much as I do. Personally, I find a lot of the small varieties not as tasty as some of the larger ones. Hubbard is good, but Georgia Candy Roaster is better. I get maybe 8-10 cups of smashed roasted squash out of one of them. I freeze them in 2-cup tempered glass containers with plastic snap-on lids (reusable & microwaveable), and strive to get 25-26 of those in my chest freezer in September-ish (because they don't keep well despite being Winter squash). I need them to last until the next Fall, ideally.

    😋 (12in/31cm ruler for scale.)
    d0i8bg86274t.jpg

    They also have extra-large plump seeds, better than average for roasted. Bonus!

    Yes, I know not everyone has this much freezer space. I can easily and very happily eat one of these within a week or two, if I set my mind to it. So good.

    Tiny squash varieties: Not enough squash, even for one meal, in my world.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,091 Member
    My rowing buddy J. made pumpkin caramel dip for our rowing club snack potluck after our moonlight row this past Saturday night. Tasty! (No, I don't know the recipe. It was not a sticky caramel-like texture, very dippable, maybe a texture closer to very thin hummus, but obviously tasting very different. )

    She brought some cookies or sweet crackers that were like a puffier cinnamon graham cracker to dip, but it was just as good if not better with some sweet potato chips (tortilla chip like ones) that someone else brought. Yum.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,906 Member
    I am so fascinated by this thread! I love learning how things are seen/used differently around the world.

    I do a lot of baking and I use canned pumpkin (not the pre-seasoned pie filling). I like to try new pumpkin or pumpkin-spice things that I see pop up in stores. I thought pumpkin spice Cheerios were gross, but pumpkin spice Life cereal was yummy!

    I buy butternut squash (which I never knew was called pumpkin in other parts of the world) already cubed, either fresh or frozen, and roast it for a side. I've never bought a whole butternut squash because I'm intimidated by it, lol.

    I also buy one or two orange 'Halloween' pumpkins to decorate my front porch with each year. I used to carve them with my family but I've lost interest in that mess.

    I do buy butternut squash, or hokkaido pumpkins every now and then. They are quite easy to deal with! I use a potato peeler to get rid of the skin, holding the pumpkin with a kitchen paper towel so that it doesn't slip away. Then use my big chopping knife and cut it in half, use a spoon to remove the seeds. Then cut into slices and then into chunks for soup, risotto, or stew. Takes about ... 15-20 minutes tops.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited October 2023
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Evidently not everyone enjoys good Winter squash as much as I do. Personally, I find a lot of the small varieties not as tasty as some of the larger ones. Hubbard is good, but Georgia Candy Roaster is better. I get maybe 8-10 cups of smashed roasted squash out of one of them. I freeze them in 2-cup tempered glass containers with plastic snap-on lids (reusable & microwaveable), and strive to get 25-26 of those in my chest freezer in September-ish (because they don't keep well despite being Winter squash). I need them to last until the next Fall, ideally.

    [snipped picture as it is on the same page]

    They also have extra-large plump seeds, better than average for roasted. Bonus!

    Yes, I know not everyone has this much freezer space. I can easily and very happily eat one of these within a week or two, if I set my mind to it. So good.

    Tiny squash varieties: Not enough squash, even for one meal, in my world.

    My mother usually grows butternut squash and eats them all winter long. One year her vines produced 84 squashes! Note to would-be growers - this takes a LOT of room. Hers spill out of the garden and go all over the field.

    She also grew Blue Hubbards one year.

    My partner's mother was also a big fan. She liked hers with cinnamon and brown sugar.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    I like this vegan Squasharoni recipe, featuring butternut squash. It is nothing like mac and cheese, but good in its own right. I have subbed ACV for the umeboshi vinegar, but do not recommend subbing for the tahini or miso. I do use the white miso called for. If you like red miso and have it on hand it would probably work, but you may want to use less of it.

    https://kripalu.org/resources/kripalu-recipe-squash-roni

    d2qb2pd21zbo.png
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,091 Member
    My suggested method for opening a hard-shell Winter squash (no axe):

    Take a sharp or serrated knife, and make a short, shallow cut in the squash skin along the line where you want to split the squash.

    Next, take a knife or cleaver that is sturdy, i.e., thick-ish on the non-cutting side. Put that blade's sharp edge in the shallow cut (which keeps the big blade from slipping).

    Now, take a hammer. If it's a metal hammer, put a folded dishcloth or something on the thick (non-cutting) edge of the big knife/cleaver so you won't be striking hard metal on hard metal. If you have a rubberized hammer like I do, you don't need that cushion. Whack the thick edge of the knife/cleaver with the hammer until the squash starts to split. (You can start with mild whacks, see if it's easier than you're expecting.)

    Once the split starts, work your way around the squash, moving the knife/cleaver and extending the crack until you get all the way around.

    This works great for me, doesn't require an axe or super strength in any squash I've tried.
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Evidently not everyone enjoys good Winter squash as much as I do. Personally, I find a lot of the small varieties not as tasty as some of the larger ones. Hubbard is good, but Georgia Candy Roaster is better. I get maybe 8-10 cups of smashed roasted squash out of one of them. I freeze them in 2-cup tempered glass containers with plastic snap-on lids (reusable & microwaveable), and strive to get 25-26 of those in my chest freezer in September-ish (because they don't keep well despite being Winter squash). I need them to last until the next Fall, ideally.

    [snipped picture as it is on the same page]

    They also have extra-large plump seeds, better than average for roasted. Bonus!

    Yes, I know not everyone has this much freezer space. I can easily and very happily eat one of these within a week or two, if I set my mind to it. So good.

    Tiny squash varieties: Not enough squash, even for one meal, in my world.

    My mother usually grows butternut squash and eats them all winter long. One year her vines produced 84 squashes! Note to would-be growers - this takes a LOT of room. Hers spill out of the garden and go all over the field.

    She also grew Blue Hubbards one year.

    My partner's mother was also a big fan. She liked hers with cinnamon and brown sugar.

    Butternut are what my family grew all through my youth and beyond. Those are good keepers.

    We would pick the ripe squash in Fall, and inspect to find any that were bruised or cut. They need to be used first. The sound ones would be dipped in dilute bleach water, and stored in a cool, dry-ish place (well pit room of our basement, in our case). Once they were fully dry, they were fine in crates. Using them with attention to which were holding well, they would last all Winter.

    Most squash or pumpkins require a large growing area: They're rangy.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    My suggested method for opening a hard-shell Winter squash (no axe):

    Take a sharp or serrated knife, and make a short, shallow cut in the squash skin along the line where you want to split the squash.

    Next, take a knife or cleaver that is sturdy, i.e., thick-ish on the non-cutting side. Put that blade's sharp edge in the shallow cut (which keeps the big blade from slipping).

    Now, take a hammer. If it's a metal hammer, put a folded dishcloth or something on the thick (non-cutting) edge of the big knife/cleaver so you won't be striking hard metal on hard metal. If you have a rubberized hammer like I do, you don't need that cushion. Whack the thick edge of the knife/cleaver with the hammer until the squash starts to split. (You can start with mild whacks, see if it's easier than you're expecting.)

    Once the split starts, work your way around the squash, moving the knife/cleaver and extending the crack until you get all the way around.

    This works great for me, doesn't require an axe or super strength in any squash I've tried.
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Evidently not everyone enjoys good Winter squash as much as I do. Personally, I find a lot of the small varieties not as tasty as some of the larger ones. Hubbard is good, but Georgia Candy Roaster is better. I get maybe 8-10 cups of smashed roasted squash out of one of them. I freeze them in 2-cup tempered glass containers with plastic snap-on lids (reusable & microwaveable), and strive to get 25-26 of those in my chest freezer in September-ish (because they don't keep well despite being Winter squash). I need them to last until the next Fall, ideally.

    [snipped picture as it is on the same page]

    They also have extra-large plump seeds, better than average for roasted. Bonus!

    Yes, I know not everyone has this much freezer space. I can easily and very happily eat one of these within a week or two, if I set my mind to it. So good.

    Tiny squash varieties: Not enough squash, even for one meal, in my world.

    My mother usually grows butternut squash and eats them all winter long. One year her vines produced 84 squashes! Note to would-be growers - this takes a LOT of room. Hers spill out of the garden and go all over the field.

    She also grew Blue Hubbards one year.

    My partner's mother was also a big fan. She liked hers with cinnamon and brown sugar.

    Butternut are what my family grew all through my youth and beyond. Those are good keepers.

    We would pick the ripe squash in Fall, and inspect to find any that were bruised or cut. They need to be used first. The sound ones would be dipped in dilute bleach water, and stored in a cool, dry-ish place (well pit room of our basement, in our case). Once they were fully dry, they were fine in crates. Using them with attention to which were holding well, they would last all Winter.

    Most squash or pumpkins require a large growing area: They're rangy.

    Mom has a very old house with an actual "root cellar" for storing vegetables over the winter, as well as a well pit room.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Elsewhere in my county, as seen in his FaceBook group :lol: :

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    82drgviwgf5p.png
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,209 Member
    edited October 2023
    I no longer slice "vegetables" with a mandolin... the meals tend to end up closer to "humanitarian" than "vegetarian" if I do! :wink:

    I no longer attempt to slice squashes for similar reasons.

    Frozen and canned are just fine...
  • MamaBear5445
    MamaBear5445 Posts: 61 Member
    Pumpkin everything!!!! I love this time of year! Cook up some pie pumpkins and add spices to make some delicious pumpkin pies and pumpkin muffins filled with cream cheese or pumpkin cinnamon rolls with all that pumpkin puree!!!

    Spices that go along with pumpkin flavorings are amazing by themselves too! On everything please at this time of year!!! From my cheerios pumpkin spice to pumpkin spice coffee creamer....

    Sorry, this thread has got me drooling like the food thread.
  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 1,405 Member
    edited October 2023
    Pumpkin 🎃 everything.

    I love roast pumpkin with a lil sea salt and olive oil. Sometimes I add in shallots and sage.

    pumpkin soup 😋
    Coconut, fish & pumpkin stew.

    I like buying the mini pumpkins and roasting them as well.

    I just saw this recipe and can’t wait to try it:
    White Bean and Sausage Stew in Pumpkin Bowls

  • kiteflyer105
    kiteflyer105 Posts: 163 Member
    In the US, sweet potato pie is much better, in my opinion, than pumpkin pie. This is for the people who do not like pumpkin pie.