Leftover pumpkin after Halloween - any ideas? 29 October 2021 at 12:45PM edited 29 October 2021 at 12:46PM in Old style MoneySaving 29 replies 2.7K views

MSE_Laura_F

Those of you who'll be carving pumpkins this Halloween - what will you be doing with the insides/leftovers, including the seeds?

🎃

tacpot12

My partner makes Pumpkin Pie with the pulp. The seeds go in the bin as we haven't got the right sort of garden to plant them to get more pumpkins.  

tboo

Carving pumpkins tend not to have very good flesh to eat so it will all go in the composting bin.

Smoosh

We don't use carving pumpkins as they tend not to taste very nice.

We have a small selection of pumpkins we've grown. After Halloween, we'll use these for pumpkin soup, pumpkin chilli and halloumi risotto and pumpkin pie. I also like to make pumpkin dog treats and pureed pumpkin is great to keep frozen for dogs too in case of upset tummies. 

For carving pumpkins, a nice idea is to leave them out for wildlife to eat. 

We'll use the seeds to grow more pumpkins for next year. 

JIL

I live near some woods, it's very common to see lots of pumpkins in amongst the trees after Halloween, left for the wildlife.

I always thought the flesh wasn't very edible for humans.

thriftwizard

It may not taste great on its own, but pumpkin's full of nutrients & it's a shame to waste it. (That said, I believe it's actually very bad for hedgehogs, by the way. Gives them massively upset stomachs just when they're preparing to hibernate & need all their strength to get through the winter.) You can make a great soup with it, or pumpkin "bread" (kind of like spicy fruit cake) - I usually roast the flesh & freeze it in portions to defrost & use in these right through the winter. Best of all if the pumpkin's grown without chemicals, but even the supermarket ones are still edible. 

bouicca21

I made pumpkin pie once with the flesh of a carving pumpkin.  It was disgusting!

RAS

We once turned a very large pumpkin into pumpkin soup, pumpkin curry  and then pumpkin pie to feed a party. I'm not fan of pumpkin pie anyway but spiced soup and curries are good.

And if you got large areas that are not cut, just slice and roast drizzled with oil, as normal.

Do avoid the hard bits near the handle. 

All assuming that your pumpkin hasn't been sitting outside by a main road or where the dogs pee?

The seeds can be sorted from the flesh, dried and toasted, roasted or just turned in a little hot oil in a frying pan as a snack or to decorate meals. I think it's better to dry them, and then heat them when you are ready to eat them as the shells are easier to remove when warm.

For snacks, add a little salt and ground spice.

adindas

Well, contribute to bla bla bla bla  bla bla  like Greta Thunberg.

carving Pumpkins, might not be as tasty as cooking pumpkin, but you could always make it tasty by adding other ingredients.

https://www.goodto.com/food/how-to-use-up-leftover-pumpkin-113390

You are doing similar thing with salad. Lecture and other salad leaves. They are generally tasteless but you make it tasty with dressing.

But the main point here is that pumpkin’s (Including Halloween pumpkin) is nutritious. Also this is an MSE forum. The day after Halloween you get carving pumpkins in almost any supermarket for less than a quarter of the original price and significantly less than cooking pumpkin.

Also in line with bla bala bla from Greta Thunberg. Although they are organic, but you contribute to reducing waste to landfill. Also it  helps binman as less waste in your wheely bins (less transportation environmental and cost impact).

theoretica

I think the taste of carving pumpkin may be a bit of a lottery. I had one which was simply bland so added other stuff for flavour and it worked out fine.  I had another one which I actively disliked the flavour of and gave up on -though the roasted seeds were nice.

adindas

bouicca21 said:

I made pumpkin pie once with the flesh of a carving pumpkin.  It was disgusting!

JIL said:

I live near some woods, it's very common to see lots of pumpkins in amongst the trees after Halloween, left for the wildlife.

I always thought the flesh wasn't very edible for humans.

I am not saying it was you but a few people might get pumpkin from the place like JIL description, in front of someone house as it is waste to be disposed, nothing wrong from MSE point so far.

But that pumpkin might looks good but there might be dog, cat pees, No wonder the taste was disgusting ...lol bla bla bla …