Recipe ideas with pump­kin: healthy & versatile

Pumpkins are versatile and healthy

Whilst once looked upon as food for the poor and confined to industrial use as a means to stretch fruit spreads, pumpkin today is a firm favourite in any vegetarian buffet and has even made its way into the repertoire of high-end gourmet restaurants. Pumpkins are unbeatably versatile. Pumpkins are also highly digestible and healthy. They taste delicious in all imaginable variations.

Unlimited combinations

Pumpkins taste delicious in all imaginable variations. Because their own taste is subtle, they can easily be paired with other ingredients and spices. There’s practically nothing that can’t be cooked from pumpkins.

Recipe for pumpkin and vanilla granola

Preheat the fan oven to 180 degrees. Peel the pumpkin if necessary (with some varieties, the skin is edible and can be left on). De-seed and grate finely. Place on an oven tray lined with baking paper, spreading the pumpkin out thinly. Pre-dry for approx. 15 minutes in the lower half of the oven.

Ingredients for the granola mixture

• 200g pumpkin, e.g. hokkaido
• 80g fine oats
• 80g rough oats
• 60g soya flakes
• 50g pumpkin seeds
• 50g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
• 1 vanilla pod, split to remove seeds
• 30g agave syrup
• 30g coconut oil, melted
  

Method for the granola mix

Now place all the other dry ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Then add the liquid ingredients and mix well. Spread the mixture over the dried pumpkin and mix thoroughly with a fork. Bake the granola at 160 degrees in the fan oven for 10 minutes. Use a spoon to toss the granola. Bake for another 7-8 minutes. Check the granola regularly in the last few minutes of baking to make sure it doesn’t turn too dark. Once the granola has finished baking, remove from the oven and leave on a rack until fully cooled.

Storage

If well sealed and protected from light, it will keep for a good 2 weeks.

Barley risotto with pumpkin

Ingredients (for 2 persons)

• 1/3 of a butternut squash
• 1.5 tbsp. olive oil
• 200g mushrooms
• 2 tbsp. walnuts
• 1 small piece of butter
• 3 sprigs of sage
• 60g barley
• 1 small bag of spinach
• 80g Gorgonzola
• Salt and pepper
  

Make barley risotto

1. Put barley in boiling water and cook according to packet instructions. While this is cooking, de-seed the pumpkin and cut into small dice. Clean and quarter the mushrooms. Pick sage leaves from stalks.
2. Place the diced pumpkin in a large pan with olive oil and fry until brown. Add a little salt and pepper. Continue frying the pumpkin. After approx. 5 minutes, add the mushrooms and continue cooking until the pumpkin is soft.
3. Move the vegetables to one side of the pan. In the other, quickly heat the butter with the sage until foaming. Add the barley and spinach to the pan and mix.
4. Serve the barley risotto sprinkled with crumbled Gorgonzola and walnuts.