Pumpkin dishes are incredibly popular in many countries around the world. In Europe, soups and casseroles are made from it, and in Austria you can enjoy pumpkin coffee and schnapps. In India, baklava is made from fruits, and in Armenia, juicy pulp is added to pilaf. In our area, pumpkin is actively grown not only in the fields, but also in personal plots. Its fruits have a very dense structure, due to which they are very well stored throughout the winter. And yet, not all housewives know what can be cooked from pumpkin. In our article we want to give a selection of the most interesting recipes.
Beneficial features
Pumpkin is not in vain popular, because it is very useful. The chemical composition of the pulp contains many vitamins and minerals. The vegetable contains beta-carotene, calcium, potassium, zinc, fluorine, magnesium, copper, iron, manganese, phosphorus, sodium. Of the vitamins in the pulp are present: B2, C, E, B1, PP.
Pumpkin is useful for people who suffer from diseases of the gastric tract and cardiovascular system. Potassium helps maintain heart muscle tone. A small amount of coarse fibers in the pulp of a vegetable has a beneficial effect on the intestines. Pumpkin doctors belong to dietary products. It can be used even with peptic ulcer and gastritis. Diet pumpkin dishes are in great demand, because they allow not only to maintain health, but also to maintain ideal forms. The pulp of the vegetable contains substances that delay the aging process and have a beneficial effect on the condition of hair and skin.
Roast
The recipes for cooking pumpkin dishes are very diverse. Its pulp can be added to ordinary dishes that we cook every day. In the autumn period, our tables have a large selection of fruits and vegetables. But the vice is a completely different matter. In the cold season, any healthy product is very valuable because it allows you to replenish the reserves of vitamins.
What can be cooked from pumpkin? We suggest making delicious roast out of pulp.
Ingredients:
- 430 g of pork and pumpkin;
- six potatoes;
- vegetable oil;
- Bay leaf;
- basil;
- salt;
- pepper peas.
Peel and dice the vegetables. We cut the meat in medium sized portioned pieces. Heat the oil in a saucepan over low heat and transfer the pork to it. After the meat is slightly fried, salt it and add the vegetables. We mix the products and wait three minutes. After pouring water into the stewpan, add bay leaf and pepper. Cover the container with a lid and simmer the food until cooked. Sprinkle roast with basil on top. Typically, vegetables quickly lose their shape during cooking. But the pumpkin - no. In addition, she completely does not lose color.
Fried pumpkin
The pulp of a vegetable is traditionally not only fried, but also baked. Pumpkin with honey is a real treat that just cooks and turns out to be very tasty.
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp. l honey;
- pumpkin (530 g);
- rosemary;
- butter (35 g);
- clove of garlic;
- salt.
We wash the pumpkin well, but do not remove the skin. Just cut the vegetable into large slices. In a preheated frying pan we heat the butter and fry the pulp on it. Add chopped garlic and rosemary to the pumpkin. Cook the pulp for five minutes. After add a spoonful of honey. We continue cooking until the honey mass is caramelized. At the end, you can add quite a bit of salt. The dish turns out both salty and sweet.
Baked pulp with honey
If you want to make a diet pumpkin dish, we recommend baking the pulp in the oven. Honey is used to add sweetness. Such a treat will appeal to even children. For a change, any nuts can be added to the pumpkin with honey. This will make the sweetness even more healthy and satisfying.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin pulp (540 g);
- sugar (35 g);
- two tbsp. l honey;
- nuts (55 g);
- 1 tbsp. l butter.
We clean the pumpkin from the skin and seeds, cut into slices. We cover the baking sheet with foil and put pieces of pulp on it. You can also cover the form with foil from above. Next, send the pumpkin into the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Cooking time largely depends on the thickness of the slices.
At that time, we chop the nuts finely (you can use peanuts or walnuts), mix them with liquid honey and melted butter. Mix the mass. We take out the baking sheet from the plate, remove the foil and pour the pumpkin with a nut-honey mixture. Next, cook the dish in the oven for another ten minutes. After it can be served. Baked pumpkin in the oven is a healthy diet dish that can be an alternative to any dessert.
Fritters
There are many options for dishes that can be made from pumpkin. The recipes are very simple. But at the same time, they allow you to get very tasty and simple dishes. So, for example, you can cook magnificent pumpkin pancakes. You can find many options for preparing such a dish. We suggest using the simplest of them.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin (520 g);
- vegetable oil;
- sugar (to taste);
- flour (125 g);
- a pinch of salt;
- egg.
Cut the pumpkin into slices and boil it in water for fifteen minutes. After cooling, we turn the pulp into mashed potatoes using a blender. Thanks to the processing, the slices of the vegetable become very soft. Next, add the egg, flour, baking powder and salt in pumpkin puree. Knead the dough, which should be similar in texture to thick sour cream.
On a stove, heat a pan with vegetable oil and fry fritters on it. On the table we serve a dish with jam, syrup or honey. Sweet and tasty dessert is very popular with children.
Mashed soup
Pumpkin soups are very popular in European countries. There are quite a lot of recipes for preparing first courses from vegetables. Recently, domestic cooks began to prepare mashed soups. We suggest using our pumpkin soup recipe.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin pulp (440 g);
- two carrots;
- 2 tbsp. l olive oil;
- bow;
- salt;
- cream.
To make soup, we need a vegetable broth. In slightly salted water, boil a celery stalk and onion. Next we need a pot with a thick bottom. Pour oil into it and heat it. Finely chop the onions and carrots. As soon as the oil warms up, send the onion to the container and quickly fry it until transparent. After that, add the carrots and fry the vegetables together, without covering. Products should not be stewed, but fried. We cut the pumpkin into cubes and also send it to the pan. Cover the container with a lid on top and simmer the products until the pumpkin is soft. Immediately after that, pour hot vegetable stock into the pan. The liquid should slightly cover the vegetables. We close the container with a lid and continue to cook over low heat for another fifteen minutes. After we turn the mass into mashed potatoes using a submersible blender.
To decorate a dish of pumpkin pulp, you can cook chips. To do this, cut the vegetable into thin strips and fry in a clean pan. Pour the pumpkin soup into the plates and spread the fried slices on top. You can also add a few leaves of greenery.
Casserole
If you want to cook a delicious casserole for breakfast, you can add pumpkin to it. The recipe for a simple dish diversifies your usual menu. You will not surprise anyone with an ordinary casserole with rice, but in combination with a pumpkin you get an original dish that can be safely attributed to diet.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin (430 g);
- sugar (120 g);
- as much rice;
- three eggs;
- lemon zest;
- butter (80 g);
- salt;
- vanilla;
- nuts (1/2 cup.).
To prepare the casserole, boil the rice first. Grind pumpkin pulp on a grater or in a combine. Separate the yolks and proteins, placing them in different containers. Mix the butter, sugar, nuts, yolks and lemon zest. Add a little vanilla to the mass. Mix the ingredients and cover the rice with chopped pumpkin pulp.
In a separate bowl, beat the whites with a mixer with added salt. Add the finished mass to the rest of the products. We grease the baking dish with oil and spread the rice-pumpkin mixture with a uniform layer. On top of the casserole, spread the butter crumbs. Cook the dish for 40 to 50 minutes. Pumpkin baked in the oven with rice is delicious. If desired, you can add cinnamon, which will give the dish an amazing flavor.
Millet porridge
Millet porridge has long been considered a traditional Russian dish. About a hundred to two hundred years ago, it was the main course on the tables. If you add pumpkin to it, you get an even more nutritious and at the same time healthy dish. This kind of food can be offered to the family for breakfast.
Modern housewives actively use kitchen appliances in everyday life, which greatly facilitate the work. Therefore, a lot of recipes appeared, adapted to modern realities. We offer novice cooks to prepare millet porridge with pumpkin in a slow cooker. A kitchen assistant will do all the work for you, and you just have to lay prepared foods. The classic recipe can be changed using prunes, dried apricots, nuts, raisins as additives. Pumpkin porridge is useful and suitable for absolutely everyone. It turns out delicate and fragrant.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin (80 g);
- a glass of millet (measuring cup of a multicooker);
- 3 cups of milk;
- salt;
- 3 tbsp. l Sahara;
- cinnamon;
- butter (55 g).
We clean the pumpkin from the skin and seeds, cut it into cubes. We wash the cereals in running water, pour over boiling water and pour water for ten minutes. During this time, bitterness will disappear from millet. The bottom of the bowl in the multicooker is greased with oil. We spread pumpkin, cereals, add salt, butter and sugar. Then pour the milk, its amount can be adjusted. It all depends on what kind of porridge you like. Next, close the lid and prepare millet porridge with pumpkin in a slow cooker, setting the mode for dairy dishes. The average cooking time is thirty minutes. After turning off the multicooker, you can allow the porridge to infuse by adding cinnamon to it. Then the dish will be even more fragrant and tender.
Casserole with cottage cheese and pumpkin
The recipe for casserole with cottage cheese and pumpkin is useful to every housewife. Such a dish can be offered to try even to those people who generally do not like vegetables. Bright and sunny casserole is not only beautiful color, but also excellent taste.
Ingredients:
- a glass of milk;
- cottage cheese (420 g);
- pumpkin (530 g);
- three eggs;
- sugar (1 \ 2 cups);
- butter (95 g);
- 3 tbsp. l sour cream;
- as much semolina;
- vanilla.
Before cooking, heat the milk and soak the semolina in it for forty minutes. We clean the pumpkin and cut into equal cubes. After we transfer it to the pan and fill it with water. The liquid should only cover a little slices of pumpkin. Next, cook them for about twenty minutes under the lid over minimal heat.
The cottage cheese must be rubbed through a sieve or twisted in a meat grinder. Grind stew-boiled pumpkin to a state of mashed potatoes. It is very convenient to do this with a hand blender. If you do not have such a kitchen assistant, then use an ordinary fork. The degree of homogeneity of pumpkin puree in this case is not important.
In a bowl, rub the eggs with sugar, add the pumpkin, semolina with milk. Mix all the ingredients. Then add sour cream, cottage cheese and ghee. You can also use vanilla. Ready dough should not be thick. Its consistency should resemble oily sour cream. Pour the mass into a greased form and bake until cooked. After 45 minutes, you can already enjoy a delicious pumpkin casserole. A simple and tasty dish will be appreciated by all family members.
Cream baked pumpkin
Want to please yourself with something tasty, cook a pumpkin with cream. Vegetable goes well with any dairy products.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin (480 g);
- a pinch of salt;
- breadcrumbs;
- fat cream (230 g);
- two eggs;
- butter (65 g).
Peel the pumpkin and cut into slices or cubes. Top the pulp with melted butter and sprinkle with crackers. We mix the eggs, cream and salt, and then pour the pumpkin over the resulting mass. The dish is baked for about forty minutes.
Stuffed pumpkin
For those housewives who are willing to spend time preparing an unusual dish, here is a recipe for pumpkin and meat. The vegetable is stuffed and baked whole. This dish looks very impressive. An ordinary roast cooked in a pumpkin is incredibly tasty and aromatic. The cooking time of the dish depends on the size of the vegetable. Large copies can be baked for up to five hours. If you want to cope with cooking faster, you should choose a pumpkin of more modest sizes.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin;
- potatoes (1 kg);
- beef (530 g);
- champignons (510 g);
- onion (3 pcs.);
- sour cream (4 tbsp. l.);
- vegetable oil;
- cheese (195 g);
- pepper;
- salt.
For cooking, take a beautiful round pumpkin. Wash it and cut the lid on top. Next, we take out the seeds and fibers through the hole obtained. We cut the meat in the same small cubes and fry in vegetable oil. Cut the onion into slices, and divide the mushrooms into four parts. After they cook together in a pan.
Peel and cut the potatoes, put it on the bottom of the pumpkin. Lay on top layers of meat, onion with mushrooms. Add salt and ground pepper. Pour boiling water into the pumpkin and put sour cream. The dish is sent to bake in the oven. The degree of its readiness can be determined by potatoes. As soon as it becomes soft, sprinkle with grated cheese on top and cook for another ten minutes. After the whole pumpkin with meat and mushrooms we serve.
Rice porridge with milk
Delicious pumpkin porridge with rice is one of the best diet dishes.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin (780 g);
- sugar (1/3 cup.);
- water (0.5 glass);
- as much rice;
- milk (1.5 glasses);
- salt;
- butter.
Peel the pumpkin, wash it and cut it into cubes. Next, transfer to a saucepan, fill with water and put on fire. After boiling, boil the flesh for about ten minutes. Add milk, sugar and salt. We pour the washed rice on top, but do not mix it, because then the porridge will burn. Cover the container with a lid, leaving a very small hole. Next, simmer the dish over a minimum heat of 30 minutes, until the rice becomes soft. When serving, a piece of butter can be added to each plate. The consistency of the dish can always be adjusted. If you think the porridge is too thick, you can dilute it with milk.
Chicken pancakes
A delicious dish with an unusual taste is chicken pancakes with pumpkin.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin (160 g);
- bow;
- fillet (430 g);
- two eggs;
- salt;
- flour (two tablespoons);
- mayonnaise;
- garlic;
- ground pepper;
- vegetable oil.
To prepare the dish, the chicken fillet must be chopped. You can simply chop the meat finely or grind it in a meat grinder. The taste of the dish in both cases will be different, so in practice you can try both options. Rub the pulp of the pumpkin, finely chop the onion, and pass the garlic through a press. We mix all the products in one dish, add pepper, sour cream and salt. Mix the mass thoroughly and introduce the flour. Ready dough with minced meat can be left to brew for fifteen minutes. In this case, the finished dish will be more flavorful. Next, fry the pancakes on both sides in vegetable oil. When serving, you can add sour cream to the dish.
Candied pumpkin
Delicious candied fruits that can replace sweets can be made from pumpkins.
Ingredients:
- sugar (120 g);
- pumpkin (480 g);
- lemon;
- icing sugar (55 g);
- 1 tsp soda;
- water (85 ml).
For the preparation of sweet candied fruits, peeled pumpkin is cut into large cubes. We put the pulp into a deep salad bowl and fill it with water and soda. We leave the pumpkin in the solution all night. In the morning, drain the liquid and dry the pumpkin slices on a napkin or in the oven on a wire rack. We put a pan with a thick bottom on the stove and prepare sugar syrup in it. Turn off the fire and shift the pumpkin into a hot mass. After three to four hours, we discard the pieces in a colander, and pour the syrup into another bowl. Cut the lemon into slices and transfer it to the sugar solution. Pour the pumpkin in syrup and bring the mass to a boil. After leaving, cool the candied fruit in sugar. After three hours, we take out the pulp of the pumpkin from the syrup and dry it on parchment or in the oven. After drying, sprinkle candied fruit with powder. A delicious dessert is ready. Useful candied fruits may well become a worthy replacement for sweets.