The uses of a pumpkin!

 Following our morning out pumpkin picking, my wonderful girlfriend began preparing her infamous pumpkin soup. The sort of infamous that I have heard about for over two years, but never tried.  

 

Meanwhile, I was preparing some HOT chicken strips and sweet potato chips. Looking over, I noticed she had some carrot and parsnip peels, ready for the food bin... Sneakily, I stole them and added them to my chicken. Then boasted about how good an idea it was, and instantly got caught out! 

 

Having saved the peelings from the bin, I eyed up the other ingredients to see what else I could make... and a quick google search later, I found out that the whole pumpkin can be eaten (except the stem). This sounded much nicer than onion skins, so I read on some more! 

 

One suggestion was to pierce the pumpkin, then roast the whole thing – which is something to try next time I have a whole pumpkin laying around spare.  

 

A few more suggestions were more suited to the leftovers. And these can be done after carving your pumpkins too! Here’s what we did:  

 

My girlfriend used the flesh for her amazing pumpkin soup! 

 

I took all the seeds, separated from the stringy mush, mixed in a bit of salt, laid them onto a baking tray, and sprinkled on a bit more salt and some Olive oil. And roasted for about 25 minutes, until golden brown. The result - a delicious, healthy snack to pick at all night! 

 

The skin of the pumpkin went under the knife, to make chip shapes. And were also sprinkled in salt and olive oil and roasted for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on these though – over cook them and they shrivel up a lot! Whoops! The result – although shrivelled, a great side to the pumpkin soup! 

 

Finally, the mushy, stringy innards. Once all the seeds were removed, I boiled it all up in a saucepan with water, drained the water into a jug, and mixed it up with either cider or apple juice, creating a delicious pumpkin cider, and no-alcohol pumpkin cider, respectively! A great addition to a Halloween party, for kids and adults! I used some Henry Weston’s Vintage cider, although I would probably recommend a cider that isn’t quite as strong to really get a good pumpkin note to it.  

 



 

Let me know what you’ve made with leftover pumpkins in the comments below! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Best Split... For You!

Image
  Wherever you look, and whoever you ask, they will all say that there is one workout split that beats all the rest.    Fortunately, this is not true!    The best workout split will depend entirely on you! What is a split?   A split is just a way of deciding what muscles/aspects of fitness you will train on a specific day. You'll likely have heard of leg day - which is just one day in a split when you work legs. And there are all manner of splits out there: Push, Pull, Legs. Chest and Tri's, Back and Bi's.  Chest day, Back day,  Leg day, Arm day, Core day.    And while each split has its own advantages, these are only really realised by more elite athletes (or anyone who goes to the gym about 10 times per week). Who, realistically, has time for that?   For most people, myself included, I recommend full body sessions. Full body sessions are perfect for if you are short on time, or have unstable schedules, and they are still extremely...
Read more

Exercise or Physical Activity?

Image
  What really is the difference between Physical Activity and Exercise?   And how can we use Exercise and Physical Activity to improve our health and help us reach our goals? First of all - Definitions!  Physical Activity  - Any movement created by the contraction of skeletal muscles. (This could be gardening, car cleaning or walking to work).   Exercise  - Planned activity with the intent of improving an element of our health and fitness or performance. (This could be going for a run, going to the gym, or attending an exercise class).   So, what does this mean?   in effect, any movement we make can be classed as Physical Activity, whether that is walking the dog or walking to the fridge. Walking to specifically improve our cardiovascular health is exercise.      So, how do we use exercise and Physical Activity to improve our health? Physical Activity can be done anywhere and at any time. Higher levels of Physical Activity have...
Read more

Cardio Training - For Any Goals?

Image
  You'll have probably heard something along the lines of 'cardio kills gains'.   But is this really true?    Mostly, no it is not true. Some people will tell you it is. Some people will tell you it's not. I will tell you it depends.    Lets look at the physiology. As we all know, to make 'gains', you must resistance train and have enough calories.  Cardio can burn a lot of calories, which is why it can be so effective for losing weight. And, why it can be tougher to build muscle alongside heavy cardio.  Muscle building from weight training generally results in increased Type 2 muscle fibres. Type 2 muscle fibres are larger than Type 1 muscle fibres, which are developed with cardio training. So, logically, to build more muscle you want to focus more on the Type 2 fibres.     However, cardio improves our heart, lungs, blood vessels and blood. This improves our bodies ability to deliver oxygen, nutrients, hormones and everything else ...
Read more