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Did you know you can cook a whole pumpkin and then turn it into pumpkin puree?  I didn’t.  I mean, I guess I did, but it just never occurred to me that it could be that easy.  Then I read this post…several years ago.  I forgot about it…until the day after Halloween when my supposed-to-be-a-jack-o-lantern was still just a pumpkin.  I wondered if I could cook up my big ol’ pumpkin?  I decided to give it a try and since I’m telling you about it, that means it worked.

I washed it and put it on a cookie sheet.  I also had to take out one oven tray so it would fit.  I stabbed it a few times – don’t want any exploding pumpkins!  I will say that stabbing it was kinda fun!  Then I cooked it at 350 for almost 2 hours.  It probably could’ve cooked a little longer, but I had places to go and couldn’t wait any longer.

After it cooled for an hour or so (maybe longer), I cut it open.  It was so easy!  I separated the seeds and saved them for roasting.  The stringy stuff went into the compost container.  I cut the skin off the rest (the skin went into the compost too) and chunked the fruit. 
I used my immersion blender to mix it up.  It really didn’t take that long.  I ened up with about 5 cups of pumpkin puree.  I’m sure I would’ve had more, but I wasn’t real careful when I cut the pumpkin up and I’m sure there was a lot of good stuff left on the skin.

I froze three one cup baggies and made the other two into pumpkin roll.  It was delicious!

Of course the seeds had to be roasted!  I spread them in a single layer on a cookie sheet, give them a generous sprinkle of salt and bake them at 350 for 10 minutes or until they are golden brown.  They are extra good when eaten still warm!

Have you ever cooked a whole pumpkin?

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