Divine Pie Pumpkins, Pumpkin Seeds & Pumpkin Brown Rice Pudding

Was that a long enough title for a post? 😉 One pumpkin that was so pretty it inspires me to embrace fall even more….

My favorite farm had these last week at the farmers market, a pie pumpkin. It was 4 1/3 pounds, an easy size to work with. To get where I wanted to be, I roasted it, producing a sweet flesh.

Roasted Pumpkin Puree

Ingredients:

• 1 pie pumpkin (also called sugar)
• Neutral vegetable oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°, line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Wash or scrub your pumpkin gently, depending on how dirty it is, dry off. Cut the pumpkin in half, top to bottom. Scrape out the seeds and innards, reserving the seeds for roasted pumpkin seeds, if you desire.

Drizzle a little oil over the inside and outsides of both halves, rub in.

Bake face down for 50 to 70 minutes, until the inside flesh is fork tender and the peel is starting to wilt.

Remove and flip over, let cool on the baking sheet till you can handle it. Scrape the flesh into a large  mixing bowl, discard peel. Mash up with a fork or potato masher, then let rest for 5 minutes.Drain off the water that has pooled under the flesh, using a fine mesh strainer.

Place the strainer over the mixing bowl and gently press the purée against the side, going in circles. Periodically scrape the outside of the sieve with a spatula, dropping the purée in the bowl. Fair warning, this will take a while and use arm muscles. When it is done you will have a small amount of pumpkin left in the sieve that is fibrous, discard this. Left in the bowl will be silky smooth purée, about 2½ cups from my size pumpkin. Pack in an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze till needed.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

• Raw pumpkin seeds
• Fine sea salt
• Neutral vegetable oil

Directions:

After removing the seeds from a pumpkin, pick through to remove any pumpkin pieces, leaving the seeds behind. Rinse throughly in a fine mesh strainer.

Preheat oven to 325°.

Add the seeds to a large saucepan, cover with cold water, add 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to boil, let gently boil for 10 minutes, drain seeds and shake dry.

Place the seed son a rimmed baking sheet, drizzle a little oil and a pinch more salt, coat the seeds by mixing.

Roast for 10 minutes, stir, continue roasting for 10 minutes more.

Let cool before eating.

 

The brown rice in this pudding adds a different texture. If you are not used to brown rice and especially short grain rice, you may not like it. Brown rice will have a bite, even fully cooked and simmered for 6 hours. I happen to be a big fan of brown rice…..but no fear, you can use short grain, long grain, brown or white. Whatever you like. If you use white it will take less time to cook, so check hourly.

The recipe itself I adapted from A Modern Christian Woman, changing the sweetener and the spices a bit.

Pumpkin Brown Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked short grain brown rice (see notes)
• 3 cups unsweetened almond milk
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• ½ cup pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp jarred or fresh ginger
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• Pinch salt

Directions:

Add everything a slow cooker, stir well. Cook over low for 6 hours (or so), stirring every hour. The pudding is done when it is very thick after being stirred. Taste for sweetener, you may want to add more.

Either serve warm or chilled.

Serves 6 to 8.

Notes:

To make brown rice that isn’t sticky (gluey) use the baking method:

1½ cups sticky (short grain) brown rice + 2½ cups boiling water = bake in an 8×8″ glass baking pan, covered with foil, for 1 hour at 375°. You will need about half the rice in the recipe, the leftovers make a nice fried rice addition or to eat in veggie sushi rolls.

~Sarah

Tomorrow? My oldest son turns 15. Wow…..