Pumpkin ideas for Halloween and beyond...

Looking for ways to use up your pumpkin?

Halloween celebrations may almost be over - but if you are lucky you may still find some super cheap pumpkin in the supermarket… or may simply be wondering what to make with this seasonal autumnal veggie.

Sweet or savoury, pumpkin has you covered!

Here are some ideas as a round-up from my blog archives, and with many of these recipes (such as the oat loaf) I have tried using both the blended scooped out flesh of fresh pumpkin and pumpkin puree from a can- both work well so use whatever suits you.

Squash or sweet potato would also likely be a good substitute… but don’t hold me to this as I haven’t tried in these recipes specifically.

What’s your favourite pumpkin recipe?

Looking for a sweet potato recipe? (or maybe more pumpkin!)

I recently made this yummy recipe for Real Food Source… check out their recipe here.

This sweet potato cake recipe makes quite a dense almost gooey cake, like a cross between a cake and a pie! I used sweet potato in this cake, but you could also try with other sweet root veg such as beetroot, pumpkin or parsnips. It is especially great served warm with cashew cream or yoghurt and a drizzle of light agave syrup. For added indulgence, throw some dark chocolate chunks into the mix! 

Try not to eat it all at once though, I thought the flavour and texture of this cake was even better the next day. 

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Mini pumpkins... speedy last minute halloween treat!

I have so many recipe photos stored up in my computer, ready for editing and blogging... finding dedicated time to do so is somewhat tricky at times!  But I promise I will get back on it much more consistently as we gear up to the end of the year since sharing recipes is something I love so much!

I made this pumpkin themed recipe yesterday AND I had to no choice but to get on here and share because otherwise Halloween would be over! ha ha

If you are planning a gathering of some sort over the weekend, or need to take a treat to one, these could be a great bet. I found the flavours a little more sophisticated than regular bliss balls, so adults taste buds may prefer them, but i'll let you decide on that!

These are really quick to make. I used roasted pumpkin for depth of flavour and a less wet mix, but for speed you could use fresh raw chunks or puree from a can BUT in that case you will likely need to add extra oatmeal (or a similar dry ingredient) since the resulting mix will be wetter than when using roasted pumpkin which has a lot less moisture remaining. I used a smaller culinary pumpkin but I don't see why regular larger carving pumpkins would not work just as well.

Don't skimp of dusting lightly in turmeric for the orangey glow, it won't be overpowering to taste and really makes them look the part (though take the clove out before eating!)

Enjoy your mini pumpkins and any festive fun you might be having the weekend! 

Recipe: Mini pumpkin bliss balls

Ingredients:

• 1 cups roasted pumpkin chunks or 1/2 cup puree

• 1/2 cup ground oats

• 1 cup dates*

• 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans

• 2 tsp mixed spice (or to taste) (note- this is pumpkin spice if in the US)

• a pinch of salt

• a light dusting of turmeric to coat

* Just using dates was sweet enough for me, but taste the mix and add a little coconut sugar or stevia if desired.

Method:

Chop a fresh pumpkin into small approx, 2cm chunks and roast for 15 mins or until golden. I didn't coat my chunks in any oil. Note: you'll need around 1.5 cups of chunks as it will shrink during roasting. 

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor until fairly smooth. If the mixture is very sticky add extra oatmeal or other dry ingredient. 

I allowed my mix to 'set' a little in the freezer for approx 30 mins so it was easy to handle. Roll into balls and toss lightly in turmeric- add a little extra mixed spice to the turmeric if you like.

Press to form a squashed ball (pumpkin shape) and add a clove to the top for extra authenticity ;-)

Keep chilled until ready to eat.

Easiest ever pumpkin coconut soup and Halloween noodles!

Well it's been a crazy week and kitchen experimenting time has been in short supply. However at the weekend I did find some time to get in on the Halloween action for a couple of crazy simple savoury dishes.... no sweet halloween treats from me this year, my sweet tooth has been a bit overloaded with so much Wholeplus taste testing for my Christmas range being packed and delivered as we speak (more on that at the bottom of this post!!)

Today you have two recipes to play with, both done in under ten minutes and with a crazy short ingredient list to match...

Sound good to you? Thought so.

This pumpkin soup may well become a new winter favourite for me, smooth and creamy with subtle spiced undertones. I reckon it would work just as well using squash and sweet potato if you don't have a regular pumpkin to hand. The toasted coconut curls on top give a great chewiness, but of course you could add pumpkin seeds for some crunch factor instead.

For the noodles, I used vegan pesto I recently bought at a food fair, but it is also easy to make your own as I did here. You could add other spiralised veggies too, but I felt that courgette on its own was the most 'swampy' looking! I added black olives stuffed with cashew butter for eye balls, but that's optional really. If you don't have a spiraliser you could use a julienne peeler but it won't have quite the same effect since you'll just have straight noodles.

Recipe: Pumpkin coconut soup

serves 1-2

Ingredients:

• 2 cup grated/processed pumpkin
• 1 onion- finely sliced/processed
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2 tsp garam masala (or spices of choice)
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cup boiling vegetable stock
• coconut curls for the top

Method:

Process the onion and pumpkin until you have very small pieces (to make for the quickest cook time).

Add to a medium sauce pan with the remaining ingredients (other than coconut curls) and bring to the boil then simmer for approx. 5-7 minutes until cooked.

Meanwhile toast the coconut curls in a dry pan for best flavour (or leave untoasted if preferred).

Using a hand blender (I cooked the whole thing in my Thermomix) blend the soup until totally smooth and creamy.  Serve immediately and sprinkle the toasted coconut on top.

Recipe: Halloween swamp noodles

serves 1-2

Ingredients:

• 2 courgettes
• 1/4 cup vegan pesto
• handful pitted olives
• approx 2 tbs cashew butter

Method:

Spiralise the courgettes and stir through with the pesto. Serve into a smallish bowl so that some of the noodles hand over the sides for special effect :-)

Stuff the olives with cashew butter to make eyeballs and add to the top of the noodle bowl. 

I served my bowl raw but you could cook the courgette noodles first and stir the pesto through to serve as a hot dish.

For more Halloween and holiday fun, checkout my 'holiday food and crafts' Pinterest board for more ideas to get creative with.

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Wholeplus news....

if you are a subscriber to vegan/healthy eating food boxes you might see my goodies popping up over the next couple of months... just saying'. Also The Vegan Kind (which might be one such box...) have now extended their delivery to WORLDWIDE... how crazy awesome is that! So wherever you are in the world you can get hold of surprise vegan treats and lifestyle products each month!

Oh and lastly, if you are in the UK, I have recently launched my special Wholeplus Christmas range of treats... check them out here!  Gingerbread, Choc-orange and Stollen flavours... all sugar free and gluten free.

Let's get festive!! It's almost November so I can start singing Christmas songs, right? ;-)

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Chocolate pumpkin brownie slices

Craziness going on here... I just realised I haven't posted these brownie slices yet!

I made them weeks and weeks ago...as in around the time of thanksgiving and pumpkin overload. I think at the time I felt I had already posted so many pumpkin recipes and there were so many other similar recipes in the recipe world that I held off a little...then forgot!

This is basically a twist on the chocolate courgette cake (mmmm, still love that beauty!) and just goes to show the veggie component is pretty versatile. I reckon cauliflower would also work (don't think i've tried that one yet though) and what about sweet potato, pureed carrot or parsnip? Some may give a slight flavour variation- but chocolate covers and compliments pretty much everything, so feel free to play around with your taste buds to find combos that you love!

 One thing to note, I tried making this with cooked, pureed fresh pumpkin (I bought a glut of pumpkins after halloweeen and froze them in chunks!) and also at another time with regular canned pumpkin. I actually preferred the fresh cooked version- not sure why that is as I can't see there would be much difference, but i could definitely taste a slight underlying pumpkin taste with the canned whereas i couldn't at all with the other- that was just my taste preference.

Makes 1 8” round or square cake

ingredients: 

• 1 cup packed dates

• approx ½ tsp pure stevia

• 1 ½ cup pureed pumpkin (fresh cooked or canned- see note)

• 2/3 cup water (if your dates are hard soak them in this water prior to blending)

• 1/3 cup oil of choice (I use coconut)

• ¼ cup flax seed

• 1 cup cocoa powder

• 1 ½ cup oat flour (I ground some regular porridge oats)

• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp mixed spice

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1 heaped tsp baking powder

• 1 heaped tsp baking soda

• handful of walnuts or pecans for toppping

Method:

Blend the pumpkin with the dates and all the wet ingredients and the flax seed to form a smooth fairly runny paste. Allow to stand for a couple of minutes.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and then add the wet. Mix lightly but well to form a thick soft batter. Add a little extra water if necessary.

Spoon the batter into a lined/greased muffin pan or round cake tin (you could also make cupcakes?) and smooth the top as best you can.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for approx 20-25 minutes, you may need to lightly cover the top of the pan with foil  for the final 5 mins to prevent the top browning before the centre is cooked through.

Allow to cool before slicing. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week…these taste even better the next day!

I'd love you to join me in other places too!  

Why not sign up for emails in my sidebar where I feature roundups and special offers. If you are new round here check out my 'About' and 'Getting Started' tabs up top. To buy nibbles you can also find me over at Wholeplus.  Day to day you can also find me in these places:

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Pumpkin, orange and pecan oatmeal

I snuck this little recipe on the eve of Thanksgiving as I think it will make the perfect breakfast!  I certainly plan on whipping up another bowl tomorrow morning to celebrate with you from across the pond!

I think with minimal tweaking, this combo would also lend itself rather nicely to becoming a baked oatmeal brunch along the lines of this Christmas baked oatmeal.

I have so much pumpkin in the freezer at the moment, having bought all the 10p halloween leftovers! It's perfect for grating into porridge, but you can of course used fresh or canned puree instead.

So, with that I will go and let you get on with your day.

Are you celebrating Thanksgiving where you are? if so what have you planned for the menu.... or for those who don't celebrate in their country (like me...sob, sob) what would you plan if you did?

Recipe: Pumpkin, orange and pecan oatmeal

Serves 1 

ingredients:

• ½ cup oats

• 2/3 cup grated pumpkin (1/2 cup pureed pumpkin)

• 1 – 1 ¼ cup boiling water*

• 1 tsp coconut milk powder (CMP)*

• 1 heaped tbs chia seed

• 1 tsp mixed spice

• ½ - 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp molasses

• few drops stevia to taste (approx. 4-6)

• handful goji berries

• handful pecans

 * You could sub the water and CMP for light coconut milk or other non-dairy milk of choice.  I've just been using a lot of CMP recently after having experimented with it so much in the creation of the Real Food Source E-book (it's free for you to download now too!)

Method:

Mix the oats, pumpkin, water and CMP in a small pan on the stove, bring to the boil and then simmer for 5 minues until thickening. Turn off the heat and mix through the chia, spices and sweetener to taste.

Pour into a bowl and add the orange segments, gojis and pecans for decoration.

Pumpkin apple baked oatmeal pudding

Hello...back again with recipes, sorry i've been slow to post recently. I have soooo many recipes i want to share but struggling for time to actually get them out on to the blog and into the world. For those you don't already follow me on Instagram... please come and find me as I usually post my recipes and experiments on my feed straight after creation so you wont have to wait so long to be inspired!! 

On to todays post. I warn you now, you may well have a load of pumpkin recipes fly you way in the next few weeks since they were selling off the Halloween pumpkins off for 10p in my local supermarket… I literally couldn't resist and bought three! I now have a freezer full of pumpkin purée so I'd better get experimenting!  

I figured the carving pumpkins probably aren't as refined in flavour as the squashes and pumpkins specifically grown the culinary purposes however its still pumpkin after all, and when puréed and added into sweet and savoury dishes it does the job just perfectly.

So first up and little single (or double serving) spiced apple and pumpkin oatbake. Super yummy. I made a small version as i wasn't sure how it would turn out but i needn't have worried and i can't wait to make this bressert again!

Totally healthy, lightly sweet, with warming spices... perfect served piping hot for those cold chilly mornings. I enjoyed this after a green smoothie first thing and then had this as a treat late morning! I was so excited it was as yummy as it looked when i came out of the oven. This is a dense and gooey pudding-style baked oatmeal, almost undercooked in the centre just the way I like it! It was perfectly sweet enough for me but you can easily adapt to taste. You could also double up the recipe to serve more if you wish.

Recipe: Pumpkin apple baked oatmeal

Serves 1-2

Ingredients: 

• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• ¼ cup finely chopped dates or date paste*
• approx ¼ cup apple juice
• ¼ tsp pure stevia (or to taste)
• ½ cup oats
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 apple- half grated and half chopped (add last)

Method:  

Mix wet ingredients together and then add the dry and mix well. Chop/grate the apple and add the grated portion to the mix. Add a little extra apple juice if the mixture seems to thick (it wants to loo quite thick and chunky).

Spoon into a small (approx 12cm) pie dish and press the chopped apple chunks into the top. Sprinkle with extra cinnamon (or sweetener) if desired.

Bake at 180C for approx 20 mins until golden, the centre will still be quite soft and pudding like. Serve into a bowl (or two) or allow to cool slightly and eat straight from the dish (recommended). Since there is no oil in the mixture may have a tendency to stick to the dish. ( I ate from the dish anyway)

*you could use 3tbs of unrefined sugar such as coconut sugar or rapadura instead of the dates.

Exciting recipe for the Virtual Vegan Potluck Party to come your way on Saturday....keep a look out, I promise you wont be disappointed with my offering!

Pumpkin oat loaf

Is it a bread or is it a cake? Who doesn't love a little bit of a pumpkin loaf, or  even banana bread for that matter. But as much as I love my banana breads I've made it all too often and needed a new challenge.

 I can sense so many of you will think 'pumpkin- that's no challenge', ah, but you see to UK peeps like me canned pumpkin just isn't as readily available and actually making the effort to peel, chop and blend or cook regular pumpkin is just something that does not happen much in my kitchen.

But, since it is halloween season and pumpkins abound, I figured I'd get a little seasonal! I actually used the flesh from a halloween pumpkin for this loaf, but since then I've found some canned pumpkin and have had fun with many more sweet (and savoury) pumpkin recipes since then. 

This loaf is moist and dense, Don't go looking for a light and fluffy afternoon tea cake, here you've got a robust and autumnal slab of goodness perfect to spread some nut butter or smash a banana onto. Breakfast, brunch, afternoon snack, half way up a mountain- yeah you get it the idea.

Go on you know you want to… 

Recipe: Pumpkin oat loaf

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups oat flour (I used ground oats)

• 1 ½ cup pumpkin flesh- packed (approx. 1 cup puree)

• ½ cup dates

• ½ buckwheat groats (or use nuts or seeds)

• ¼ tsp pure stevia (extra if needed)

• 2 tbs flax

• 1 ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• 2 tsp mixed spice

• 1 tsp vanilla powder

• optional- pumpkin seeds or cacao nibs on top.

Method: 

Blend the pumpkin, dates, spices and stevia together until smooth. Pour into a mediaum bowl and add the dry and mix through well.

Spoon into a small loaf pan pie dish and sprinkle with topping of desired.

Bake at 180C for approx 50 minutes, loosely covering the top with foil for the final 15 minutes if the top is already golden.

Best serve warm with smashed banana or nut butter. Tasted good stored in the fridge for up to a week.

Toffee pumpkin squares

These dense and rich toffee squares are a seasonal variation of this original sticky toffee pudding recipe. However this time with a few tweaks to include pumpkin instead of sweet potato, and instead of serving these warm with a pouring sauce, I would serve these cold simply with their sticky topping….this is a ‘messy fingers’ situation!  Of course you could also serve these squares warm if you preferred.

In my original recipe I used spelt flour, but here I used my typical GF flour combo, you’d never know the difference. I’d encourage you to try with your own favourite flour mix since the relative ratio of flour is not particularly high so you should be able to substitute other ‘flours’ without compromising the taste or texture. If you want a more cakey texture increase the baking soda, and likewise if you want a really dense crumb you could omit the baking soda altogether.

I made these squares for a friend to take to a work event a week or so ago, gluten free was a specific requirement. I made 36 little cakes in all including these almond raspberry chocolate torte slices

 (as seen in the photo) and also these double banana blondies (still in the oven at the time the photo was taken!)….all the choices were at the request of my friend (good choices!)

I was up late into the night trying to get them finished for him to take to work the following morning, but it was all worth it when such a positive report rolled in the next day!

Recipe: Toffee pumpkin squares

Makes 16 small squares

Ingredients

1 cup cooked pureed sweet pumpkin

¼ cup soy yoghurt

1/3 cup coconut butter- melted

1/3 cup dates- softened

½ cup mashed/pureed chickpeas

3 tbs brown rice syrup (or maple syrup) plus ¼ tsp stevia

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup spelt or GF flour (I used 1/3 cup each of almond meal, buckwheat flour, tapioca flour)

2 tbs cacao powder (or cocoa powder)

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

A pinch salt

For sticky toffee top:

¼ cup softened blended dates

3 tbs brown rice syrup

Method

Blend the wet ingredients in food processor until very smooth. Pour into a bowl, add dry ingredients and mix together until well mixed. Spoon mixture into a parchment lined 8x8 baking tin and smooth the top. Bake in oven at 180C for approx. 8 minutes.

Whilst the cake is in the oven blitz the dates to form a paste and add the syrup.

Remove the pudding from the oven after 8 minutes and use a toothpick to make holes all over the top of the cake- approx. 100 holes. Spoon the toffee sauce over the top and smooth over allowing it to seep into the holes (much of the sauce will remain on top as a sticky layer).

Return to the oven for a final 5 minutes cooking time. Once cooked, allow to cool before slicing into squares.

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.