If they are not damaged, winter squash like these will store well for a couple of months in a cool, dry place. Once cut, cover with plastic film and refrigerate.
I think butternut is the most flavoursome but the regular grey-green crown pumpkin you find in all supermarkets also has a good flavour.
Pumpkins and their relations are thought to have originated in the Americas, but they've been around for a long time in Europe and Asia.
These brightly-coloured vegetables with a soft texture and slight nutty sweetness have become one of New Zealand's favourites, and our favourite ways to eat them are roasted or in soup.
But pumpkins are hugely versatile and can be used in all sorts of ways, savoury and sweet, spiced and plain, hot or cold. Pumpkin curries and bakes are warming, pumpkin risotto is comforting, pumpkin breads and scones are good, and there are even recipes for pumpkin ice cream and creme brulee.
Pumpkin pie flavoured with spices is traditional at American Thanksgiving celebrations. In the Middle East and Spain they enjoy sweets such as halva and cakes made with pumpkin.
Some pumpkins like kumi kumi have a hard skin and are best cooked before the flesh is scooped out. Others, like the common crown pumpkin, can be peeled first. Scoop out the seeds and fibre before cooking.
As pumpkin absorbs the flavours of what it is cooked with, it's best baked, roasted, braised, stewed or steamed, rather than simply boiled. If you want to cook it plainly, the microwave is the easiest. If you are baking one whole, pierce the skin first.
A whole, hollowed-out, baked pumpkin containing soup or stuffed with vegetables or spiced couscous or rice makes an impressive centrepiece, or you can use small pumpkins as individual servings.
In Argentina they serve a rich beef stew, carbonada criolla, flavoured with onion, garlic, tomatoes, oregano, potato and sweet potato, sweet corn and pumpkin in a hollowed-out pumpkin shell which has been baked for about half an hour, so the walls are cooked but still firm.
Pumpkin soup is so popular, everyone either has a favourite recipe or is looking for one. The simplest is to soften a chopped onion and a clove of garlic in a little olive oil, add cubed raw pumpkin and stir for a bit to get crusty edges, then add stock to cover and cook until the pumpkin is soft.
Season with salt, nutmeg and freshly ground black pepper, then mash or purée. It is nice served with a dollop of yoghurt and sprinkle of paprika or parsley.
This can be very good depending on the quality of your stock and the flavour of your pumpkin - if you roast the pumpkin first, it will intensify the flavour.
Herbs and spices such as oregano and thyme, sage and rosemary, cumin and coriander, or cardamom, cinnamon and cloves can be added.
There are many variations on pumpkin soup:
Cook a little chopped bacon or chorizo (spicy Spanish sausage) with the onion, add some tomato or tomato paste, a chopped potato or kumara, and/or a chopped leek.
Pulses such as chickpeas or lentils go well with pumpkin, giving the soup more body. Cumin, coriander and powdered ginger are good spices with this, or try a Moroccan blend such as berbere or stir in some harissa (Moroccan chilli paste).
A versatile dish that can be soup if you purée it or a curry if you leave it chunky, starts with softening a chopped onion, a couple of chopped garlic cloves and a teaspoon of black mustard seeds in a little oil.
Add a couple of crushed dried chillies, a teaspoon each of ground cumin and turmeric and half a teaspoon each of garam masala and salt. Stir, then add a 400g tin of coconut milk and about 400g chopped pumpkin.
Simmer until the pumpkin is tender. Add the juice of half a lemon to give a lift.
If you are making soup, purée it (you may want to add more water), otherwise serve as a curry with rice to soak up the liquid.
Roasting vegetables intensifies the flavour and pumpkin is no exception. Toss wedges or cubes in a little olive oil and bake at about 180degC for 20-30 minutes until soft - the smaller the pieces, the faster it cooks.
A mixed vegetable roast is great - add kumara, potato, beetroot, carrot, parsnip, halved onions or whatever you have.
I like to roast vegetables high in the oven on fan-grill as it crisps and browns them nicely. Give the pan a shake or stir from time to time.
Before roasting, toss pumpkin with oil and:
- drizzle over a little balsamic vinegar or lemon or orange juice
- toss with cumin, coriander, sweet paprika and black pepper and drizzle with a little pomegranate molasses
- toss with a little golden syrup or honey or maple syrup, or a tablespoon of brown sugar along with half a teaspoon of cinnamon.
Roasted pumpkin cubes can be used in many ways. They make the basis of a good winter salad, cold or warm, with or without pasta or rice to bulk it up. My favourite dressing is a simple vinaigrette: in a jar, shake some extra virgin olive or avocado oil with a little wine or
balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper.
Add a teaspoon or so of Dijon or seed mustard, or some fresh herbs like mint, oregano or parsley if you like.
Toss roasted pumpkin cubes with:
- spinach, watercress or rocket, olives and shaved parmesan cooked, chopped silverbeet and onions, sultanas and pinenuts or walnuts with half a teaspoon of sugar and a small dash of wine vinegar or pomegranate molasses
- with fetta, crisp bacon, cherry tomatoes and fennel seeds
- with baked garlic, sliced, sautéed brown mushrooms and walnuts
- with sliced red, yellow or green peppers, corn kernels and a pinch of chilli powder
- with cooked lentils, goat's cheese or fetta, finely chopped celery and parsley
- with a sauce of yoghurt, a crushed clove of raw garlic, salt, mint, a pinch of cayenne and half a teaspoon of sumac or lemon juice.
Roast pumpkin cubes can also be used in frittatas, quiches and gratins:
- roast pumpkin cubes with onion and garlic, then mash and mix with a large pinch of nutmeg, a couple of eggs beaten with a little milk and yoghurt and some grated cheddar, gruyere or goat's cheese. Top with breadcrumbs and a sprinkling of more cheese, then brown under the grill.
Depending on how thick or thin you make it, pumpkin purée or mash can be used as a side vegetable or as a sauce for other vegetables or meat, or it can be used as a dip or spread or even a soup.
Roast the pumpkin (or microwave it if you are in a hurry) and mash or process it with some of the flavourings suggested above for soup.
- a simple version is to mash cooked pumpkin with some butter or avocado oil and plenty of nutmeg and a bit of pepper. Top with crispy garlic slices, crispy bacon bits, or add chopped, toasted almonds or peanuts for a bit of texture.
- blend cooked pumpkin with fetta, a teaspoon each of roasted fennel and cumin seeds, black pepper and olive oil.
Braises and stews are warming winter dishes that can be a whole meal in themselves:
- For one with a Latin American flavour, soften a chopped onion in oil, add cubed pumpkin, a couple of chopped fresh chillies, tin of tomatoes, fresh, frozen or tinned corn kernels, a tablespoon or two of mild paprika and some thyme or oregano.
Simmer until almost cooked then stir in some cooked or canned lima or cannelli beans and season with salt and freshly-ground pepper. You could add chopped peppers or potatoes to the mix if you liked.
- Cook onions, several cloves of garlic, pumpkin cubes and portabello mushrooms in a little oil with bay leaves and thyme, then add red wine and stock and simmer until the pumpkin is nearly cooked. Stir in torn up pieces of stale bread - use a heavy grainy bread for best results.
Season and cook slowly until everything is soft. Serve topped with parmesan. This keeps well in the fridge and is good reheated as the flavours will meld.
