Many years ago, my husband and I came across the “Long Island Cheese” pumpkin – a flat, round, variety that looks a little bit like a Cinderella pumpkin but is light-colored. Its beautiful to look at, but even more beautiful to eat (we buy our seeds from the High Mowing Seed company here in Vermont). The flesh is not as dark as a pie pumpkin and is almost akin to a butternut squash.
Like any edible pumpkin variety, it is easy to chop up a long island cheese, drizzle it with olive oil, roast it (about 30 minutes at 400 degrees), and puree it (we use a food processor). Each long island cheese pumpkin will provide about 2 quarts of puree.
This year, when I roasted our first one, I set out to find or create our favorite pumpkin recipes and see how many I could make with this one batch of puree. I was able to make 5 delicious recipes from one pumpkin!
There’s no better way to celebrate the fall than filling your kitchen with the warm smell of pumpkin spice. Here are the recipes we made in our “week of pumpkin” here at The Happy Hive:
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds: Roasted pumpkin seeds are a simple way to make the most of your pumpkin, and can be seasoned in a variety of ways. We’re partial to savory options, like the garlic version of this roasted pumpkin seed recipe from The Prarie Homestead. We also appreciate the detailed directions provided here to lead to a successful batch.
Pumpkin Sage Soup: While your seeds are roasting as an appetizer, you can make dinner for that night by throwing together a quick batch of easy pumpkin soup. We combined a couple of recipes from cookbooks in our kitchen with some online suggestions to come up with this tasty pumpkin sage soup recipe. It is a lighter, savory soup that takes advantage of the lighter quality of the long island cheese variety.
Pumpkin Bread: Fall’s equivalent to summer’s zucchini bread, pumpkin bread recipes range from moist quick breads to hearty slicing recipes. We love this recipe from King Arthur flour that adds honey and whole wheat flour to the mix to make for a hearty and healthy pumpkin bread that is great to share with friends.
Pumpkin Scones: Scones are a favorite in our household because they are easy to make and offer healthier alternative to sugar-filled pastries. There are many online recipes that try to duplicate those available at chain coffee shops, but we wanted a recipe that was less sweet but equally satisfying. We ended up with a variation on a go-to recipe, with the added bonus of a yummy pumpkin glaze in this recipe for pumpkin spice scones.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Brownies: The “piece de resistance” in our pumpkin adventure was dessert. Last fall, we had taken an urban adventure to eat our way through Montreal and had a decadent chocolate pumpkin brownie at a lovely place called Juliet et Chocolat. It was time to perfect an at home version. Building on a cream cheese brownie from America’s Test Kitchen, we create a pumpkin cream cheese brownie recipe that was seriously to die for, using the last ½ cup of our pumpkin puree.
So go ahead, cook your way through a large batch of pumpkin puree. And if you have other favorite recipes to add to this list, I’d love to hear about them. There are many more pumpkins in our root cellar waiting to be enjoyed!
Carrie Williams Howe is the Executive Director of an educational nonprofit by day, and parent and aspiring homesteader by night and on weekends. She lives in Williston, Vermont, with her husband, two young children, and a rambunctious border collie. Carrie has a PhD in educational leadership and is passionate about being an authentic, participatory leader in various settings. She is a contributing editor at Parent Co Magazine. Connect with Carrie on The Happy Hive Facebook page. Read all of Carrie’s MOTHER EARTH NEWS posts here.
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