Life has been a little on the crazy side lately. To sum up the past few weeks, I fell down the stairs in my daughter’s school and hurt my knees. My daughter slipped and hurt her chin, and needed 7 stitches. Toss in exams, work, two birthdays and a flue all in less than a month!  That is why I have not posted frequently lately, missed quite a few of the posts on the wonderful blogs I follow and that is why I am late in replying to your comments.I am deeply sorry for that and  I am doing my best to catch up.

To help make it up to you my wonderful readers, I will be sharing a series of pumpkin recipes starting with this homemade pumpkin puree. There is a pumpkin frittata, pumpkin coconut pudding, candied pumpkin, and a pumpkin soup recipe on the way.  Stay tuned 🙂

Why make pumpkin puree when I can just reach for a can?

Well, for one, homemade pumpkin puree is preservative and additives free. You know what’s in it. One pure ingredient. Pumpkin, roasted and then pureed to perfection.

It is really easy to make

It freezes well

It feels good to say, I made my own pumpkin puree 🙂

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Ingredients

1 whole pumpkin

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly oil it

Cut your pumpkin in half, use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and pulp.

Make sure you keep the seeds for another use.

Cut the pumpkin into almost equal sized pieces (you need them to be almost the same time to make sure they need the same cooking time)

Arrange the pumpkin with the rind side down on prepared baking sheet and roast 45-50 minutes or until a fork is easily inserted and removed.

Make sure you test more than one piece

Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack until pumpkin is cool enough to handle.

Now you can either peel the pumpkin or scoop it out with a knife.

Place the flesh in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the flesh is smooth, 3 to 4 minutes.

If you want your puree to be completely smooth, run it through a colander

Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 3 months.