roasted pumpkin

Yesterday, I began roasting the pie pumpkins I had purchased for a Trunk or Treat on Halloween. I found mine at Lowe’s for half price, $1.24 each. I’ll be freezing my puree in bags, not canning it. To safely can pumpkin, a low-acid vegetable, I would need to use my pressure canner. I wasn’t prepared to do the process.

Knowing I would roast them, I chose the bigger pumpkins. I chose to throw the seeds in our compost bin; no one is a fan of pumpkin seeds here.

Each pie pumpkin is about 1 inch thick. The flesh of a pie pumpkin tends to be sweeter and thicker than the big pumpkins used for jack o’lanterns.

I ended up fitting 3 pumpkins on my 2 baking sheets. I poked holes with a fork in the outer skin of each pumpkin before roasting. I chose not to cover the sheets with parchment paper or foil; the pumpkins did not make a lot of mess on the baking sheets.

I roasted the pumpkins for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. In a larger oven, I may have needed more time for roasting.

My next step is pureeing the pumpkin in my food process after scraping it out of the shell. Then, I’ll freeze it in 2 cup portions. I like to lay my bags flat in the freezer during the freezing process to make it easier to store the frozen pumpkin in the freezer.

I think I will retrieve about 20 pumpkin seeds from my compost bin to save for growing next summer. I’ll need to rinse them off and let them dry thoroughly before storing to prevent mold from forming on the seeds.