h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I bought a few pumpkins cheap at the beginning of November. My conclusion, having now cooked with them, is that they're a feeble and more watery imitation of a butternut squash. What d'you reckon?

Pumpkins are a kind of squash aren't they?

I think I used to make pumpkin soup. Yeah, pumpkin and spinach. I'll try and remember to look for the recipe when I get back from work tonight.

They are. But on current experience, the butternut squash is far more flavoursome. On t'other hand, maybe I just got low-grade el cheapo pumpkins that were only ever intended to have lanterns made out of them.

Out of the three I had, I've got one left, which was from a different shop and may be better. Oddly enough, I've also got a job lot of spinach left over, but I was going to do something else with that. How long before you get home from work, Gosho?

It's funny, we had pumpkins at Halloween when I was a kid, but Mum never cooked with them. I discovered the butternut squash for myself in later life...

Pumpkin and spinach soup, mmmmm - I can't wait to see the recipe, either. It sounds good!

I've made good pumpkin bisque, and a pumpkin/spinach quiche that turned out rather nicely, if you're interested.

It's been my experience that larger pumkpins are quite balnd and seem better suited to jack-o-lantern carving, and smaller pumpkins with denser "meat" are much more flavorful.

If you like baking, I recently made some really nice chocolate chip pumkin brownies, and would be glad to share that one as well.

"balnd"? I meant "bland", of course. Sorry!

Right, pumpkin and spinach soup, from a very be-splattered page in my old Cranks recipe book.

1 medium sized onion
1oz (25g) butter or marg
1lb (450g) pumpkin
8oz(225g) spinach
2 medium sized tomatoes
2 pt (1.81l) vegetable stock
Salt and pepper

Finely chop the onion. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and sauté the onion until transparent. Dice the pumpkin, finely shred the spinach and roughly chop the tomatoes. Add the vegetables to the pan with the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, then cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until all the vegetables are tender. Season to taste.


Although I used fresh pumpkins and spent time scooping out the seeds and cutting off the skin, I used frozen chopped spinach and tinned tomatoes.

Pumpkin seeds can be washed and baked then eaten like most other kinds of edible seed such as sunflower seeds. I never cared for them much myself but baseball players seem to devour them. They're called 'pepitas' around these parts.

Pumpkin seeds are much better baked with some kind of seasoning - this year we made two batches. One with Cavender's Greek seasoning, and one with Jane's Crazy Salt. Both were yummy.

The brownies sound great, psychocandy
Would you share your recipe?

Is that weight for the pumpkin before or after peeling or de-seeding???

It's this lack of specificity for total idiots that puts me off about a lot of recipes...

For Broelan's benefit, here's the pumpkin chocolate chip brownie recipe:

2/3 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c packed chopped pumpkin OR canned pure pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 c unsifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp ground cinammon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground mace
1/4 tsp ground salt
1/3 c milk or semi sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 F (180 C). Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, egg, wgg whites and oil. Mix with electric mixer, on medium speed, until well blended. Add flour, baking powder, cocoa, salt and spices. Beat together on low speed until batter is smooth and shiny. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spread mixture evenly into baking pan. Bake in center of oven for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool brownies in the pan or on a wire rack. Cut into squares and serve. Good with a little puff of whipped cream or topping on top!

After.

Thanks!

*nips off to buy some spinach*

That pumpkin's been sitting around for much too long.

On the other hand, I'd also had another kind of squash lying around called a Turk's Turban, which I'd bought partly on the strength of the name and partly because it looked interesting. It was gorgeous, much better than the last pumpkins - although quite sweet.

As well as the Gosho-soup, I'm about to make some bubble and squeak with what remains of the Turk's Turban plus some old broccoli...

Gosho, if you're there, do I liquidise the soup? I've just made it...

I used a spud masher - almost liquid but with lumps.

I gave it the full-on blender treatment - still a little bit of texture left. I don't know why I'm surprised at the colour it's turned out, considering it contains spinach and tomatoes. Fortunately it tastes better than it looks...

Glad you enjoyed it. I really ought to be cooking it meself - the shops are stiff with pumpkins at this time of year but they won't be for much longer.

It smells almost offensively good for you and crammed with iron...

With what was left of the pumpkin, I've made the soup I traditionally make with butternut squash:

55g/2oz butter
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
3 large leeks, chopped
1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped
1.2lt/2pt vegetable stock
sea salt
black pepper

1. Melt the butter in a large soup pan and cook the onions and the leeks until they are both translucent.
2. Add the butternut squash to the pan and cover with the lid. Cook it all gently for 10 minutes.
3. Add the vegetable stock and generous seasoning to the pan and gently bring it all to the boil. Cover the pan again, and simmer on a low heat for a further 20 minutes.
4. Blend half of the soup in a blender and leave the other half in the pan, to give the soup lots of taste and texture. Mix it all together well and serve.

(I also chuck in some bacon lardons if I'm in the mood and I've got some in...)

BV used to make a very tasty dish with acorn squash. It involved cutting it in half, scooping out the seeds, filling the resulting hollow with a sweet liquid concoction and then baking it in the oven - didn't take very long. I'll find out what it is she puts in there.

Actually, BV is a tasty dish

Ahem.