It’s November and your Jack O’ Lantern friend is still solid. So, what are you going to do with it? The answer is virtually anything, you can bake, make soup, curries, skewers and pasta.
The first thing you need to do for most of these leftover pumpkin recipes is make pumpkin puree. You can either do this by microwaving chopped pumpkin for 20 minutes then mash it and let it cool. Or you can peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds and steam it over simmering water for 10 minutes then mash it and leave it to cool.
For a pumpkin pie filling add condensed milk, eggs, sugar and spices. Then, pour it into your pie crust and bake until it is slightly jiggly in the centre.
You can also grate pumpkin or butternut squash with nuts and raisins into a cupcake mix for delicious autumnnal cupcakes. To make pancakes follow any normal pancake recipe and add mashed pumpkin to it.
For those of you interested in savoury recipes soup, curry and pasta are easy and delicious. Pumpkin curry offers a flavourful vegan alternative with the same method as any other curry. Add curry paste, onions, chickpeas, vegetable stock, spices, coconut milk and pumpkin then let it simmer until the pumpkin is soft.
To make pumpkin and lentil soup, puree the pumpkin and use a hand blender to smoothen it if you need. After, add lentils, thyme, garlic, lemon and stock. You can add the seeds, (if you still have them) and toast them in a pan until they jump. Mix the two together with creme fraiche for a fragrant and hearty bowl of soup.
And for pumpkin pasta alla vodka roast some sage and prepare the pumpkin puree. Fry an onion until it’s soft and cook whatever pasta you feel like, remember to keep a cup of pasta water. Finally, mix the onion, tomato puree, pumpkin puree and vodka until it cooks off. Pour in cream and pasta water before garnishing with sage.
Recipes for all of these can be found on BBC Good Food, YouTube or any recipe resource you prefer.
You could also compost your leftover pumpkin, provided you have a proper compost heap. If you don’t it will just rot and attract vermin. With compost your soil nutrients strengthen as well as its structure. It’s a great way to use food waste.
Featured image credit: Gantas Vaiciulenas via Pexels
Third year journalism student. 2025/2026 Lifestyle and Comment Editor at Brig. Published in The Yucatán Times, Mi Campeche and The Mourning Paper. Host of From the 40s with Air3Radio.
