Pumpkin is a real find for culinary experts. The pulp of this vegetable is used for making soups, cereals, side dishes, baked goods, juices and desserts. Pumpkin seeds also do not stand aside, which can be added to baked goods and salads, used as an ingredient for breakfast cereals, or simply served as an independent snack. In addition to excellent taste, pumpkin has a rich vitamin and mineral composition.
The benefits of pumpkin for the body
With the help of pumpkin, you can not only diversify your diet, but also improve your health. So, regularly eating this orange vegetable, you can get rid of toxins and toxins, reduce the level of bad cholesterol in the blood, strengthen the heart muscle and blood vessels, dissolve kidney stones, improve vision, and transform the condition of the skin and hair.
Pumpkin is the leader in iron content among vegetables, which means that it is useful for people with low hemoglobin. Pumpkin fruits are also rich in vitamins B, C, E, PP, calcium, potassium and magnesium salts, fiber and pectins. In terms of beta-carotene content, pumpkin is significantly superior to carrots, so ophthalmologists strongly recommend including pumpkin dishes in your diet and drinking pumpkin juice to “nourish” the retina.
The carnitine in pumpkin, which is involved in metabolic processes, makes this vegetable an ideal side dish for pork and lamb dishes, helping to digest foods that are heavy on the stomach and preventing the formation of fatty deposits. Pumpkin is an indispensable product in the diet, it removes excess water and toxins from the body, contributing to weight loss.
Pumpkin is of particular value for pregnant and lactating women, since during this period the body needs more nutrients that this vegetable can provide. In addition, pumpkin contains a large amount of calcium, which is necessary for the growth and development of the baby.
Pumpkin seeds also have medicinal properties. So, due to the content of a special substance - cucurbitin - pumpkin seeds have a powerful antiparasitic effect. Curcubitin paralyzes the worms: they cannot cling to the walls of the mucous membranes and leave the body. In addition, pumpkin seeds are a source of zinc, so they are useful for dandruff, acne, and seborrheic dermatitis.
Table varieties of pumpkin
Most often, the choice in grocery stores is limited to three varieties: nutmeg, large-fruited and hard-baked.
Butternut squash. This guitar-shaped variety has the sweetest fruits with a pleasant nutmeg aroma. The peel is thin, peeled off with a knife without much difficulty. The pulp of butternut squash is soft and sticky due to the presence of a large amount of sugar, and the high content of beta-carotene colors it in a rich orange color. There are practically no seeds in such a pumpkin.
Hard Bark Pumpkin. This table variety is considered the most cultivated in Russia. The fruits of the hard-bore pumpkin are bright orange in color and round in shape. The flesh of the vegetable is fibrous with a lot of beige or cream seeds, the taste is pleasant and sweet. Already by the name of the variety, it is clear that the peel of the pumpkin is very dense, which allows you to store the vegetable for a long time.
Large-fruited pumpkin. As the name suggests, pumpkins of this variety are distinguished by their impressive size: the average weight of the fruit ranges from 20 to 50 kg, and the weight of individual specimens can reach 100 kg. The pulp of ripe fruits is very sweet and sugary, contains a large number of large seeds of white or light brown color. The peel of the vegetable is quite dense.
Muscat varieties are ideal for desserts, while round, thick-skinned gourds are best for first and second courses.
How Do I Pick a Good Pumpkin?
When choosing a pumpkin, you should opt for medium-sized fruits, since giant overgrown vegetables can have dryish or, conversely, watery flesh with a bitter taste. You can determine the degree of maturity of the pumpkin by the tail: in ripe fruits, it is dark and dry.
If the vegetable has suffered a fungal disease, then dark spots, softened spots and cracks will be visible on the peel. Such a pumpkin will taste unpleasant and very bitter.
How to store pumpkin properly?
Only undamaged fruits with a whole stem are suitable for long-term storage. The optimum temperature for storing pumpkin is 5-15 degrees. Do not store fruits in rooms with high humidity or freezing in winter. You need to lay vegetables at a short distance from each other so that rot from one fruit cannot spread to the next. There is no specific term for how long a pumpkin can be stored, with properly organized storage, you can feast on these orange vegetables until the next harvest.
The huge size of the pumpkin does not always allow you to use all the pulp at one time, so many people have a question about how long a cut pumpkin can be stored in the refrigerator. Pumpkin pulp, cut into pieces and wrapped in food foam, remains usable for 14 days. If you use foil instead of cling film, then the pumpkin's shelf life can be extended to 30 days.
Combining pumpkin with other foods
Pumpkin goes well with any other vegetables, as well as millet, rice and semolina. Pumpkin garnish goes well with main dishes, except, perhaps, fish and seafood. Pumpkin has a neutral taste, so it is better to season it with spices with strong aromas: garlic, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, sage, ginger, curry, chili, mint, etc. A good addition to pumpkin dishes can be a mixture of green onions and dill.
What to cook with pumpkin: 10 best recipes
Puree soup with pumpkin and croutons
Peel and chop one medium-sized onion. Pour some vegetable oil into a hot pan and fry the onion for a few minutes. Then cut two potatoes, one carrot and half a kilo pumpkin into small cubes. Place the chopped vegetables in a saucepan, add fried onions to them, pour water and cook the soup until tender. Season the finished dish with salt, pepper and dried garlic. Pumpkin puree soup is served with croutons and fresh herbs.
Salad with pumpkin, arugula and feta
We peel one medium pumpkin from the skin and seeds, cut into small cubes, and then send them to bake in the oven. We send the baked pumpkin pieces to a salad bowl, add chopped arugula leaves, feta cheese cut into small cubes and a head of onion cut into rings. Season the finished vegetable salad with a mixture made from 1 tbsp. tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper at your own discretion.
Pumpkin stewed with vegetables
Pour the chopped onion and carrots into a deep frying pan and fry in sunflower oil until golden brown. Cut half a kilo pumpkin and a small zucchini into cubes and add to the fried vegetables. Following them, we send sweet peppers and slices of two tomatoes into the pan into the pan. Add a pinch of sugar, table salt, pepper and any seasonings to taste. Serve the finished vegetable stew to the table with lemon juice and chopped garlic.
Chicken baked in pumpkin
Cut two chicken breasts into small cubes. Dry the meat with paper towels, then salt and pepper to taste. Then roll the chicken fillet pieces in flour. Preheat a large frying pan, add vegetable oil and fry the meat on all sides until a light golden crust is formed. The frying process should not last longer than 3 minutes, otherwise the chicken will turn out to be tough and overdried. Remove the pan with fried meat from heat and leave to cool.
In the meantime, we take a large pumpkin of round varieties, cut off the top of it and peel it of seeds. Put the pumpkin on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil. Place the fried chicken pieces inside the pumpkin. Season everything with ground oregano, pour with cream and sprinkle with grated cheese. We close everything with the cut off crown and coat the pumpkin with vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and place a baking sheet with pumpkin in it. The cooking time is 1 hour 20 minutes. You can check the readiness of the pumpkin with a knife (it should easily pass through it).
Remove the top from the finished vegetable and lay out the meat contents on plates. Cut the pumpkin itself into pieces and serve with the chicken as a side dish.
Vegetable cutlets from potatoes and pumpkin
Peel and seed potatoes and pumpkin in equal proportions (350 g each). Rub the peeled vegetables on a fine grater or grind them in a food processor. In a deep container, combine the vegetables grated to a mushy state, salt and pepper them to taste. After that, add 3 tbsp. tablespoons of flour and mix thoroughly until a soft homogeneous dough is formed. If the dough is too dry, let it brew for 5 minutes so that the chopped vegetables release enough juice. If the juice, on the contrary, is too much, then add another tbsp. a spoonful of flour or semolina.
We form cutlets from the resulting minced vegetables and roll them in flour. Add vegetable oil to a well-heated frying pan and put cutlets on it. Fry the cutlets on each side for 4 minutes without using the lid. Vegetable cutlets will be an excellent side dish for any meat dishes.
Cottage cheese casserole with pumpkin
Rub the pulp of one medium-sized pumpkin on a fine grater and squeeze the juice. Beat 3 eggs and half a glass of sugar in a mixer. In the resulting mixture, without stopping whipping, add half a glass of sour cream (15% fat), 3 tbsp. tablespoons of semolina, 500 g of cottage cheese (fat content 9%) and salt to taste. Then we mix everything with the grated pumpkin.
Transfer the dough from cottage cheese-pumpkin puree to a baking sheet, greased with butter in advance. Cook the casserole at 180 degrees for 45 minutes. We take out the dish from the oven, let it cool a little and serve it along with sour cream sauce.
Pumpkin pie with honey
To prepare the dough, mix 6 tbsp. tablespoons of sifted flour with 100 g of butter at room temperature, cut into small pieces. Then add the chicken egg and mix well until a dense homogeneous mass is formed. We wrap the resulting dough with cling film and put it in the refrigerator for half an hour.
To bake a cake, prepare a container with a diameter of 23-25 cm with small sides. We take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out on a work surface sprinkled with flour. We spread the dough on a mold, closing the bottom and edges, and then put the container back in the refrigerator for the same time.
Cover the cake blank with baking paper, pour dry beans on top and send it to cook in the oven for 15 minutes, setting the temperature to 180 degrees. Remove the parchment sheet with beans and bake the dough in the oven for a few more minutes.
Cut the peeled pumpkin into large slices, wrap it in foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at a temperature of 220 degrees. Grind the finished pumpkin in a blender. Add 50 g butter to the pumpkin pulp, 3 tbsp. spoons of honey, 1 teaspoon of lemon zest, a little cinnamon and vanilla. Then, without stopping beating, add 3 eggs in turn. We move the finished filling into the form obtained from the dough.
We put the pie in the oven and bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees. Let the dessert cool down a little, after which we serve the dish to the table.
Mannik with pumpkin
First, mix a glass of semolina with a glass of kefir so that the cereal swells. We insist the resulting mixture for half an hour. At this time, peel and seed a small pumpkin weighing 300-400 g. Grate the vegetable pulp on a medium-sized grater. We squeeze and filter the juice of one lemon, rub the zest on a grater.
In a deep container, mix 100 g of butter with a glass of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar, then add 2 eggs and mix all the indicated ingredients thoroughly. To the resulting mass, add the semolina already swollen in kefir and mix again until a homogeneous consistency is obtained.
Next, pour the lemon zest and grated pumpkin pulp into a cup and mix again. Now all that remains is to add a glass of flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
Take a small oiled baking dish with a diameter of about 20 cm and transfer the prepared dough into it. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and place the blank for the manna in it. Cooking time varies depending on the individual characteristics of the oven and ranges from 30 to 60 minutes. The readiness of the manna can be easily determined by the browned crust, and so that the cake does not burn, you can put an iron dish with water under the baking sheet.
While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup for pouring. To do this, dilute lemon juice with water to a volume of 100 ml, then mix with 3 tbsp. tablespoons of granulated sugar. Put the resulting mixture on low heat, bring to a boil and simmer for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar.
We take the pumpkin manna out of the oven and immediately pour it over with hot syrup - this will make the baked goods tender and moist. Sprinkle the dessert with powdered sugar, coconut or confectionery powder.
Pumpkin cookies
Cut the pulp of a small pumpkin into slices and boil in salted water for about 15 minutes. While the vegetable is boiling, beat with a blender 200 g of granulated sugar with softened butter, then add the egg and beat everything again. Turn boiled pumpkin into mashed potatoes with a blender.
Combine the butter mixture with pumpkin gruel, adding 20 g of vanilla sugar. Mix the sifted flour with ½ teaspoon of baking powder and various spices (grated nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, ground ginger, etc.). Pour flour with spices into a bowl with a pumpkin-meat mixture and mix thoroughly until smooth.
Cover the pallet with parchment and grease with vegetable oil. Armed with a tablespoon, put the dough on a baking sheet. Moisten a dessert spoon in water and give the liver a smooth, rounded shape. We put the workpiece in the oven, preheated to 200 degrees, and bake for 20 minutes. The finished product should not turn out to be too tough, therefore, as soon as the edges begin to redden strongly, it is time to take it out.
Pumpkin marmalade
Cut the pulp of sweet pumpkin into cubes, fill with water and cook until tender. Beat boiled pumpkin with a blender, then mix with 250 g of sugar. Heat the resulting mass over low heat. After 5 minutes, add 70 ml of lemon juice and continue cooking until the mixture thickens. The finished mass should fall from the spoon in pieces, if it flows down, then you need to continue cooking.
Cover the baking sheet with parchment, put the marmalade on it and leave it for 12 hours until it hardens completely. Sprinkle the finished orange treat with icing sugar and cut into cubes.
