Free Pumpkins

At the Pavilions grocery store in Seal Beach, they were giving away pumpkins on November 1st. I’ve carved a pumpkin just once, and the rest of the time that I’ve bought pumpkins, I’ve cooked them.

The reason the pumpkins were free was that they were the carving kind and Halloween was over! Still, I’d cooked these before and they were not bad! In Trinidad, in fact, pumpkin is often served with a meal, next to rice and stewed chicken or beef.

What would you make with three pumpkins? That is how many I gathered. The goal is to cook all of them before they start growing, because that would be wasteful.

What I Made

What would you make if you had a pumpkin? Not the small sugar pumpkins, but what would you make with the larger carving pumpkins. I have made several recipes, and am currently working on the second pumpkin. Some of the recipes that I made, I really like, so I did them again. In this post, I am just sharing how I used the pumpkin, but later, I promise I will share at least one or two actual recipes.

Pumpkin is great to just cut up and add as a vegetable to any dish. I added it to lentil soup, and to a brothy soup that I made. I had lots, so I was very generous with the pumpkin. The lentils with pumpkin was very good the second day around.

Pumpkin seeds are a logical snack to make when working your way through a pumpkin. Just wash the seeds free of any pumpkin, add some lime or lemon juice, salt and black pepper! Roast at 350 degrees until it looks done (about 35-40 minutes). I set the timer for 15 minute increments and check in on it. Yummy snack, and the seeds crunch up as you chew them!

Trinidad Pumpkin with a twist is by far my and my husband’s favorite! I have made it 3 times since I started this project, and I am wanting to make it again! It’s a savory pumpkin dish that we eat in Trinidad. I think it’s a part of the East Indian influence on Trinidad cuisine! It’s vegan and very yummy!

I did do some research into other pumpkin dishes. Many of them start with pumpkin puree, so I know I’ll be making some puree so that I can make pumpkin dishes later.

What would you make if you had a free pumpkin? I guess I would plan on checking out the stores on every November 1st!

Squigglemom is a YouTuber and blogger. She can be found on YouTube at channel Squigglemom and Friends and on her own blog at Squigglemom.net.