In the spotlight - Pumpkins

It wouldn't seem quite right to let Halloween pass by without highlighting pumpkins. It also follows on nicely from Thursday's post about food wastage. How many people do you think buy a pumpkin to carve and then discard the flesh afterwards? My bet would be most people. I think the problem lies in the fact that a lot of us don't know what to do with pumpkin. Making soup is perhaps the obvious choice and if we were playing Family Fortunes and asked the audience, I reckon most would give this answer. However, hopefully you'll see from this post that there is more to pumpkins than lanterns and soup!

A few pumpkin facts:

• Pumpkins are a fruit! They belong to the same family as melons and their name comes from the Greek word for "large melon".
• Last year in Wisconsin a pumpkin was grown that weighed just over 129 Stones!
• They are a good source of potassium, B vitamins and Vitamin A, C & E.
• Pumkin seeds are rich in essentail fatty acids and can make a nice addition to cereal, salads, homemade flapjacks and bread.
• The tradition of carving pumpkins actually came from Ireland - it was common for Irish people to carve turnips, but when they emmigrated to America, they discovered pumpkins, which were so much easier to carve that they never looked back.
• Make a temporary plant pot from the shell of your pumpkin.

Now for some recipes:

Sweet pumpkin loaf

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees or gas mark 4.
• Add 200g (7oz) plain flour, 1.25 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1tsp cinnamon and 0.5tsp nutmeg into a bowl.
• Add 250g (9oz) pureed pumpkin, 200g (7oz) brown sugar, 110ml (4 fl oz) buttermilk, 1 egg and 2tbsp margarine to the bowl and mix well.
• Pour into a loaf tin (23cmx12cm or 9"x5") and bake for 1 hour or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
• If you are unable to buy a whole pumpkin, tins of pumpkin puree are available to buy in larger supermarkets and more specialist food shops.

Pumpkin and butterbean tagine

• Pour 1 pint of boiling water into a large pan and crumble in 1 vegetable stock cube, along with 0.5tsp corriander, 0.5tsp cumin and 0.25tsp tumeric.
• Add 200g (7oz) sliced leeks and 200g sliced parsnips, bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add 600g (21oz) cubed pumpkin, 400g (14oz) sliced courgettes and 1 sliced red,yellow or green pepper, then bring back to the boil. 
• Add 100g (3.5oz) chopped dried apricots, a drained 400g can of butterbeans and 0.25tsp chilli powder. Stir well and season with pepper if desired.
• Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the veg are tender.
• Garnish with fresh parsley or corriander if available.
• Serve with rice, couscous or bulgar wheat.