Too many pumpkins!

shegirl

Oops!


I have ended up accidentally ordering too many pumpkins, not sure how. I've ended up with 4 culinary pumpkins and 4 large Halloween pumpkins. Only wanted 2 of each -2 to carve, 1 for pumpkin pie and 1 for pumpkin soup (culinary pumpkins are much better for this)


I'm going to make some pumpkin pasties and can chuck some in the freezer, so that's some of the excess sorted. BUT that will still leave one culinary (could make more pasties) and it seems wasteful to chuck the flesh of 4 large Halloween ones.


Considered doing some candied pumpkin (could possibly fob off onto the trick or treaters?) but what else could I do? I've got my monthly meat delivery coming on Friday and have loads of swede and parsnip to blanch and freeze so won't have a huge amount of space left for pumpkin based foods.


Should I just be wasteful and chuck it?

meanmarie

Pumpkin will keep for quite a while if kept somewhere cool....I've had them for weeks

Marie

DawnW

Just keep them in a coolish, dry, frost free place and they will last most of the winter. We used to grow them and would often be using them well after Christmas. I am not sure of the difference between 'culinary' and 'large halloween' pumpkins though - the kids used to hollow out some of the big ones for halloween but I would use the innards for soup, same as the smaller ones. I don't intentionally grow them now as my garden is much smaller than at my previous house, but DD gave me what she said was a 'courgette' plant this spring, which turned out to be a pumpkin - the plants are very similar when they are small. So I unexpectedly have two big pumpkins sitting in the back porch :rotfl: They will sit there until I want to use them. I used two others last month for chutney.

PS swede and parsnips can be kept similarly, I only bother to freeze them if they are looking like going off

kboss2010

The carving pumpkins aren't supposed to be edible as they pump them full of chemicals to make them bigger.

CupOfChai

DawnW wrote: »

I am not sure of the difference between 'culinary' and 'large halloween' pumpkins though - the kids used to hollow out some of the big ones for halloween but I would use the innards for soup, same as the smaller ones.

Both are edible but culinary pumpkins have a better flavour as they aren't left to get so huge. I've made soup out of each kind, and both soups were nice, but the soup made from the "culinary" or "eating" pumpkins did taste that bit nicer.

I can't get hold of any this year except for expensive ones though, I don't want to use a large carving pumpkin for my soup if I can help it because it won't taste quite as good!

shegirl

DawnW wrote: »

Just keep them in a coolish, dry, frost free place and they will last most of the winter. We used to grow them and would often be using them well after Christmas. I am not sure of the difference between 'culinary' and 'large halloween' pumpkins though - the kids used to hollow out some of the big ones for halloween but I would use the innards for soup, same as the smaller ones. I don't intentionally grow them now as my garden is much smaller than at my previous house, but DD gave me what she said was a 'courgette' plant this spring, which turned out to be a pumpkin - the plants are very similar when they are small. So I unexpectedly have two big pumpkins sitting in the back porch :rotfl: They will sit there until I want to use them. I used two others last month for chutney.

PS swede and parsnips can be kept similarly, I only bother to freeze them if they are looking like going off

Culinary pumpkins taste better, have more flesh, isn't as watery and isn't as stringy.


Thanks for the advice there but I don't want pumpkins just sitting round for ages

CupOfChai

See if anyone nearby with kids wants a big one to carve?

Edit - Or without kids.

Fen1

Freegle?

American websites are usually really good with pumpkin recipes and ideas.

lucy_lemon

I tend to roast the flesh and puree it for using in a pumpkin streusel cake recipe I found online. Each cake uses about a cup of puree, so I freeze the rest. It freezes really well! So I would imagine that you could freeze cooked pumpkin to use in soups, stews, etc?

RAS

Pumpkin curry is nice. Use a bought curry spice mix (small amount) and add extra ground coriander,

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Oh dear. Words fail me.