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Produce, Pumpkin

The Fundamentals of Roasting Pumpkins, Squash, & Other Gourds

Roasting pumpkins for your own purée is much easier than it may seem! Anyone with an oven and a food processor can do it. It's an incredibly forgiving recipe with no precise cook time. A little leeway here and there is just fine. It also has a much better flavor than canned pie pumpkins! Which tend to have a slightly bitter, metallicy taste leftover from the can. They also sometimes have added sugar or artificial pumpkin pie flavor to try and compensate for this. So, put down the can and pick up an actual gourd!
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Cooling Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Latin American
Servings 2 cups

Equipment

  • Spoon
  • Baking Sheet
  • Aluminum Foil
  • Oven
  • Food Processor

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pie pumpkin (or similarly sized gourd)
  • 2 cloves garlic (optional)
  • 1/2 shallot (optional)
  • 1 jalapeño (optional)
  • dash salt (optional)
  • dash pepper (optional)

Instructions
 

Roast

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Cut pumpkin in half and remove stem.
  • Using a spoon, scoop out the innards to remove all of the seeds and stringy pieces. Reserve the seeds if you want to roast them for a fun snack.
    The "guts" are still edible, but can be texturally unpleasant. I will usually keep them to puree into soup or pet food. However, most people will discard them! Just make sure not to toss any seeds!
  • Once you've cut in half and removed the innards from the pumpkin, wrap in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet.
    I do this by getting a piece of foil long enough to wrap around the entire pumpkin. Place pumpkin face down in the center of the foil. Then, wrap the edges of the foil around to cover the pumpkin completely.
  • Bake for 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, depending on size. Make sure to flip halfway through so that the pumpkin sides are face up.
    The size of the pumpkin can drastically increase the cook time. Pie pumpkins and butternut squash tend to weigh around 3-5 pounds. Gourds on the smaller end, will typically roast in about 45 minutes. Ones on thee higher end, tend to take a little bit longer. The best thing to do is to cook them for 45 minutes and then check them every 5-10 minutes after that until they’re cooked throughout.
    With larger or denser gourds, like a Calabaza or Ambercup, this can take more in the realm of 2 to 3 hours. In this case, you can also increase the cooking temperature to 400 degrees for a slightly quicker bake.
  • When the flesh is soft and you can poke it with a fork without any resistance, remove from the oven. At this point it should vaguely resemble the consistency of a baked or boiled potato.
  • Let cool to the touch or place in the refrigerator or freezer until it reaches a manageable temperature.
    Just make sure that it doesn't freeze! Because crystalizing can disrupt the texture of the purée.

Purée

  • Remove skin and add pumpkin to the food processor. It should peel off easily. If you like, you can get every bit of pumpkin out of it by scooping the remaining pumpkin out with a spoon.
  • This is the point where you should spice the pumpkin if you like. I usually don't for a sweet pumpkin recipe or if I don't know what I'm going to do with it. Mostly because they're a delicate flavor and you don't want to overwhelm the natural flavor! Pumpkins are naturally sweet and, when you put them to a dessert that already has copious amounts of sugar in it, adding any sugar or other spices at this point could throw off the flavor.
    Every now and then I might add salt, pepper, garlic, shallots, and maybe a hot pepper or two.
    For sweet, rather than savory, dishes, I'll sometimes toss in some nutmeg or vanilla extract. But, like I said, don't overdo it!
  • Purée until smooth, about 30-60 seconds. Making sure to scrape down the sides occasionally.
    If you aren’t using a food processor, you can use a large mixing bowl and a fork, potato masher, or mixer to achieve a similar effect. I prefer a food processor, though, because it removes the stringiness that I find texturally unpleasant.
    If I'm going for a chunkier consistency, I'll cube the gourd before roasting with a little bit of oil, salt, and pepper so that it cooks in that shape.

Tips, Tricks, & Notes