How to Roast a Whole Pumpkin ♥

Today's recipe: How to bake a whole pumpkin in the oven, the pros and cons both.

Talk about easy - just throw the pumpkin in the oven, whole, and once it's done roasting, then it slices open like butter - no more finagling with a knife, worry about losing a finger.

But then, what to do? (While we're deciding, scoop out the pumpkin seeds to make Spicy Sweet Pumpkin Seeds.)

For awhile now, I've read/heard that "canned pumpkin is as good as fresh". Last year I roasted my first pumpkin -- what, you didn't know that? well, that's because the roasting process went fine but the flesh itself was so blah. And yes, I roasted a sugar pie pumpkin (and not a pumpkin for jack o'lanterns) which by all rights should be good.

This year, the roasting process again went fine and while I didn't do side-by-side comparisons, I can say that the flesh of this roasted pumpkin made a one delicious pumpkin pie (later, my friends, later!) and pretty light-orange pancakes until the last bit turned into a pumpkin smoothie. Unfortunately I didn't save enough for pumpkin bread pudding which my friend Ann served at our book club last week and ... yumm.

So I haven't decided yet whether canned pumpkin is better or not - just that last year I had no luck with roasted pumpkin and this year I'm more than pleased. (Please see the Updates, below.) What about you -- what's your experience?

UPDATES
You know how you some times read that some pumpkins are watery and tasteless? Two out of the three 'good' baking/roasting pumpkins have turned out that way for me. After roasting, pureeing and draining, a smallish Sugar Pie Pumpkin (#3) yielded only 1 cup of (watery, tasteless) flesh but I was shocked to measure the liquid that emerged, well more than a cup. It needn't go to waste: just add it to a soup (as the liquid, not for flavor in a pumpkin soup, say).
In contrast, the large Hubbard squash shown behind the measuring cup yielded 6 cups of flesh and not a single tablespoon of liquid. THIS is what you want to use for dishes where real pumpkin flavor is called for.
How can you tell, before roasting? I don't know, yet, though will work on this idea. What I do recommend, however, is having a can of pumpkin puree in the pantry, just in case.

WHOLE ROASTED PUMPKIN

Hands-on time: 5 minutes
Time to table: 60 - 90 minutes

1 sugar pie pumpkin (or any pumpkin OTHER than one for Halloween jack o' lanterns)

Set oven to 400F. Wash pumpkin well, especially the blossom and stem ends. Rub skin lightly with olive oil. Just in case, put a baking sheet on the lower rack below the pumpkin to catch any juice that might squeeze out, then put the pumpkin directly on the rack above - no need to wait for the oven to preheat. Roast for 60 - 90 minutes. The actual time will vary based on the oven's actual temperature, the moistness of the pumpkin, the variety of pumpkin. But it's done when a knife slips into the flesh like butter. Let it cool a bit before slicing open - and even then, be careful when slicing open for the steam will rush out and could definitely burn.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Cup (236 grams) of Roasted Pumpkin: 94 Cal (2% from Fat, 8% from Protein, 90% from Carb); 2 g Protein; 0 g Tot Fat; 0 g Sat Fat; 0 g Mono Fat; 25 g Carb; 0 g Fiber; 5 g Sugar; 97 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 9 mg Sodium; 0 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 1 point
NOTE: The USDA Nutrition Database doesn't have information about pumpkin that applies here so I've used butternut squash as the source.

KITCHEN NOTES
Straight from the oven, roasted pumpkin is more fibrous than the highly processed canned pumpkin. Be sure to put it through a food processor before using it for baking.
According to the great resource Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka, a two-pound sugar pie pumpkin will yield 2 cups of pumpkin purée and that is slightly less than what mine produced.

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FAVORITE PUMPKIN RECIPES
~ Pumpkin Corn Bread ~
~ Pumpkin Muffins ~
~ Thanksgiving Cake ~
~ more pumpkin recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Autumn Pumpkin Bread ~
~ Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars ~
~ Pumpkin Bread Pudding ~
~ more pumpkin recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column

PUMPKIN DAY My favorite fellow vegetable lover is a young chap named Freddie, who's seven years old and lives in England with his big sister Alex and his dad and his mum -- she's the one who's in charge of their blog, The Great Big Vegetable Adventure and who organized a little P is for Pumpkin Party for today. Check out the pumpkin risotto Freddie rated 9 out of 10 (though maybe anything with bacon ought to be handicapped? Freddie gives high marks to everything with bacon -- oh right, just like the rest of us!!) and Spiced Pumpkin, Bacon and Mussel Conchiglie (wait! more bacon!) from Book the Cook and Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins from Hannah's Country Kitchen. (Update: I see that Figs Olives Wine also has Freddie's number! She's just posted Pumpkin Fennel Tian with Bacon & Black Olives -- note the bacon!)

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