Roasted Pumpkin

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Last Halloween I collected all the leftover pumpkins from the neighborhood and tossed them into my garden for compost. I figured “waste not, want not” right?!? A large portion of our garden was brand new and I figured some nice nutrient-rich compost is just what it needed. Also, the chickens really liked nibbling on the pumpkins which is handy because a chicken can turn a pumpkin into compost very quickly! hahaha

In the spring we had a surprise plant in the garden which turned into a massive pumpkin plant. I mean huge. When we stretched it out a couple weeks back it was over 20 feet long with massive plate-sized leaves. It gave us 7 beautiful pumpkins. For the last few weeks they’ve been positioned around the house as decoration but last night I decided I had waited long enough and I wanted to try cooking one!

You may already know that there are large pumpkins for carving/decorating and small pumpkins for eating. So if you are buying a pumpkin to eat make sure it is a small one. I think any small one would be delicious but there are specifically “pie pumpkins” the roast up perfectly. Mine ended up being small, smooth and sweet ones. Perfect. I am so happy about this because I still have 6 more to eat!

My mom recommended making pumpkin soup with my leftover roasted pumpkin! That is such a good idea. This batch I baked with a little brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice so it might be a little to sweet for soup but the next pumpkin for sure!

The process is easy. The easiest. You want to slice up the pumpkin and bake in a 400F oven for 20 minutes. That is it! From there you can season however you like. I tossed mine in coconut oil, Trader Joe’s pumpkin pie spice and brown sugar. If you planned to make soup then maybe some butter, salt and pepper. Or even some curry powder for a curry pumpkin soup. Mmmmm