Pumpkins spur the imagination, from the 19th century idea of using them for jack-o’-lanterns to Cinderella and her spellbound pumpkin carriage.
But along with folksy celebrations and fairy tales, pumpkins can help you to be more imaginative in the kitchen.
While most are familiar with pie pumpkins, there are many other delicious ways to enjoy these members of the Cucurbitaceae family.
Muffins, pancakes, soups, stews, and even pumpkin lasagna are all tasty and fresh when you know the best varieties to grow for cooking.
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This garden vegetable takes a lot of space, water, and warm or hot weather to produce. But the results – wow!
The best cooking cultivars are fresh, dense, and sweet, and produce enough flesh for numerous meals and batches of baked goods.
When I grew an heirloom cheese pumpkin of uncertain origins a few years back, I was astonished that the flesh from the harvested and cured fruits was fresh, moist, and even a little sugary.
It bore little resemblance to the tinny-tasting canned pumpkin I kept around the house so I could make the occasional loaf of pumpkin bread.
I ended up steaming, mashing, and freezing about 20 pint jars of that flesh, and using it for the next nine months.
I cooked creamy soups using thawed pumpkin in place of my usual butternut squash, added a few spoonfuls to tomato sauces to give them body and a touch of sweetness, and added the moist puree to pancake batters.
This year, I’ve taken it into my head to grow the blue-shelled ‘Jarrahdale’ cultivar with thick orange flesh. This type hails from Australia and is named after a town in Western
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