Homemade Pumpkin Puree: Fresh, Easy, and Delicious
Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Do you love pumpkin? If you love pumpkin pie, muffins and more from fresh pumpkin puree, you can freeze it and enjoy year round. This can be made with pumpkins from your garden, the farmers market or from the stores. Here in the United States, we usually find fresh pumpkins in the Fall season.
When making pumpking puree, you typlically use sugar pumpkins as they smaller and sweeter. You can use your jack-o-lantern pumpkins, they may be more stringy, watery and not as sweet.
Ingredients Need:
Small sugar pumpkins (washed)
water (optional if puree is too thick)
Choosing the Right Pumpkin
You will want to pick small and heavy sugar pumpkins for the best pie pumpkins. They will be dense, and give you a lot of pumpkin to puree. Lighter pumpkins will be hollow and have less pumpkin. You want to get as much as you can out of your purchase to make homemade pumpkin puree.
How Do I Prepare and Bake the Pumpkin?
Start by washing your sugar pumpkins and drying them. You will want to place the pumpkin on the cutting board and cut it in half (top to bottom). Scoop out the pumpkin seeds and string using an ice cream scoop for quick work. .
The pumpkin is then baked for 45 minutes to an hour at 400F until the flesh is deeper in color and soft. Make sure to allow the pumpkin cools before you scoop out the flesh.
How Do I Make Puree?
After baking the sugar pumpkin and letting it cool, scoop the roasted pumpkin flesh into a bowl or food processor. The fresh pumpkin is then processed until smooth and portioned into freezer containers or bags.
If you don’t have a food processor you can use a hand mixer or a potato masher or fork to mash the pumpkin. If there is excess liquid, you can strain the liquid using a mesh strainer.
Five Benefits of Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Taste – Homemade pumpkin puree is more flavorful and is more nutritious than canned pumpkin puree.
Cost Effective – can be mad in large batches and frozen up to 6 months for future use.
Know Your Food – Know what is in the food you eat and better what is not
Reduce Homemade pumpkin puree is also a great way to reduce food waste and use up leftover pumpkin.
Heathly – it’s a vegetable and has lots of vitamins and dietary benefits.
Freeze – You can freeze extra for later and enjoy longer than pumpkins last.
How Do I Store and Freeze the Puree?
Store homemade pumpkin puree in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Freeze the puree in ice cube trays or airtight containers for up to 6 months.
Use frozen pumpkin puree in recipes just like you would canned pumpkin.
Label and date the containers so you can easily keep track of how long they’ve been stored.
How Do I Substitute Canned Pumpkin Puree?
Homemade pumpkin can be substitute canned as a 1:1 substitute ratio in recipes. You may find that the pumpkin puree has a different consistency and not as smooth. You can try to make it smooth by mixing in a blender, with a little amount of water or use a hand mixer or food processor. Make sure to add your spices like you would to for your recipes.
Possible Pumpkin Puree Issues and Solutions
Too thick -add a little water to thin out.
Too thin – Add more pumpkin (if you have some) or cook it down to reduce the liquid.
Too stringy – Strain the puree through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any remaining fibers or pulp.
Too bland – Add a little salt or spices to enhance the flavor.
Using Pumpkin Puree in Recipes
Use in recipes like pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, muffins, cake, pancakes and pumpkin soup.
Add puree to oatmeal, yogurt, or smoothies for a nutritious and delicious breakfast.
Use puree as a base for soups, stews, and curries.
Easily Make Homemade Pureed Pumpkin
Equipment
- Freezer bags
Ingredients
- pie pumpkins (washed)
- water (if needed)
Instructions
- Preheat oven 400F
- Make sure to wash the pumpkin before starting. You do not want to have or get dirt inside the part you are going to eat.
- Pat the pumpkin dry so you can easy hold it while cutting.
- Remove the stem off the pumpkin if it's still on the pumpkin.
- Cut the pumpkin in half, from top to bottom in half.
- Use the ice cream scoop and scoop out the seeds and strings from inside the pumpkin.
- You can save the seeds for roasting or wash and save and plant next year.
- Place the pumpkin cut side down and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the pumpkin is tender and the outside is a nice dark color.
- Allow the pumpkin to cool and use the ice cream scoop to remove the pumpkin from the skin of the pumpkin.
- Place the puree in a large bowl in using a hand mixer or immersion blender and blend the pumpkin puree well.If you are using a blender, place the scooped pumpkin into the blender and mix well.
- If the pumpkin is a little dry, add a little water, to help with mixing but not more than you need.
- If you find your pumpkin is watery, you can heat up before using to remove any excess liquid.
- Place your freezer bags into the baggy holder and measure out the pumpkin puree.Mark the bags with what it is, the date and the amount in each bag.
- Freeze the bags flat to save space.
- Frozen pumpkin puree can stay in the freezer up to 6 months.