ISTOCKPHOTO/MARCELO WAIN

Happy holidays everyone! I was reading the Healthy & Green Daily newsletter and came across this great recipe for a Thanksgiving dessert — Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Pie. It sounds delicious, so check it out!

Crust
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup pecans (chopped or whole)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon Sucanat (see notes)
1 cup trans-fat free vegetable shortening (see notes)
3 tbsp ice water

Filling
16 ounces extra firm lite silken tofu
2 cups pumpkin puree (canned, or fresh – here’s how)
1/2 cup Sucanat (see notes)
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 cup pecan halves

1. For the crust: Pulse flour, pecans, salt and Sucanat in a food processor until ground, then add shortening and pulse until almost combined. Add ice water and pulse until just blended.

2. Collect dough into two balls and flatten each into a disc. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours until firm. When chilled, roll out into a 9-inch circle on a floured board and place into an 8-inch pie pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.

3. Make the filling: Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place tofu in a food processor or blender, and blend until creamy. Add pumpkin, Sucanat, 1/4 cup of the maple syrup, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves, and blend well.

4. Set aside some pecan halves for garnish. Toss remaining pecan pieces with remaining 2 tablespoons maple syrup in a small bowl and then place evenly on the bottom of the pie shell. Pour filling into pie shell and bake approximately 1 hour, or until tester inserted in the center comes clean. Set pie aside to let cool. Garnish with remaining pecan halves.

NOTES
Sucanat is a great natural sweetener that you can read about here. If you don’t have Sucanat, you can use the natural sweetener of your choice.

For vegetable shortening, try Spectrum Organics which is trans-fat free and made with 100 percent organic expeller pressed palm oil.

This recipe was reprinted with permission by Care2 Inc. Care2 is an organization that strives to provide “powerful tools to make a difference in your life, community, country and world.”

Hey pumpkin carvers: Stop. Wait. Don't waste all those yummy seeds! (Happy Halloween, by the way.) You can save those seeds from ending up in the garbage can with 4 easy steps:

1. SOAK THE SEEDS in water for a few hours. Fill a bowl with water, drop in the seeds and rub them between your fingers to start loosening up any attached pulp. Don't worry about getting every last bit off, because soaking them for a while makes it easier to rub all the pumpkin-ey pulp off later.

2. DRY THE SEEDS on a towel for a few hours, or until they are dry to the touch.

3. SEASON THOSE SEEDS with whatever's on-hand and sounds yummy. Sweet and savory both work well — be creative. (Our friend Kim Wallace, over at Natural Home magazine has a step-by-step recipe for sweet cinnamon-n-sugar pumpkin seeds.) Using a little bit of honey or oil will add flavor and help herbs and spices stick well. For the pumpkin seeds I made as a salad topping (see below), I tossed the dried seeds in extra-virgin olive oil (Global Gardens 2007 Harvest first cold press, a wonderfully fruity and aromatic premium olive oil) and Maine Coast Sea Vegetables organic kelp with cayenne pepper blend (one of my long-standing favorite seasoning blends).

4. ROAST THE SEEDS in a 300-degree-Fahrenheit oven for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them: They'll be done when they're golden to light brown.

Crunchy seaweed- and cayenne-spiced roasted pumpkin seeds make a fabulous topping for a fresh arugula salad, and counterbalance the sweetness of crispy cucumber and pear slices.

More pumpkin know-how: Grilled Pumpkin with Rosemary and Sea Salt * Pumpkins Make any Dish a Smashing Hit * 7 Great Pumpkin Carving Tips * Wacky and Wonderful Halloween Pumpkin Designs * Three Phunky Pumpkins * The Great Pumpkin * The Great American Pumpkin * Make a Jack-'O-Lantern ... And Eat Pumpkin Pie, Too! * About Pumpkins * Beer America TV Pops the Top on a Pumpkin Lager 

My backyard grown sugar pie pumpkins are finally ripening up in spite of the steady rains we've been experiencing here in the Pacific Northwest. A few of the pumpkins ended up being somewhat small and weren't worth the effort to process into pumpkin puree. So, what to do with these little guys? I wanted to do something new and, not having grilled pumpkins before, I was quite excited to give it a try.

During grilling, the sugars in the pumpkin caramelize. The combination of sweet and salty, coupled with crisp rosemary, will give you a different way of thinking about pumpkin. After trying this, you just might find yourself dreaming of expanding your pumpkin patch next year.

Make sure you use sugar pie pumpkins or the equivalent for this recipe — you really don't want to eat a jack-o-lantern type pumpkin as they are stringy. If you aren't growing your own sugar pie pumpkins you should be seeing them available in stores and farmers markets this month or, better yet, make a fun trip out of it and head out to a U-pick pumpkin farm. Don't forget to pick up a few extra for making your own pumpkin puree for pies and breads later in the year.

Ingredients:
Sugar pie pumpkins (preferably on the small side)
Olive oil
Fresh rosemary, chopped
Sea salt

1. Heat grill to medium-high.

2. Wash and cut the pumpkins vertically into 3/4 inch slices. Remove the seeds and stringy parts. Brush both sides of each slice liberally with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt and rosemary.

3. Place the slices on the grill for about 5 minutes a side or until dark grill marks appear. Turn and grill the other side until you can easily pierce the pumpkin slice with a fork. You want to make sure that the pumpkin is tender.

4. Since some of the salt tends to fall off during the grilling process, serve with a small dish of additional sea salt.