Put Pumpkin Back on the Menu

Written by: Danielle Gymorie cert. Personal Trainer at Prescription Fitness (Cleveland, OH)

Fall, the holiday best defined by two holidays of self-indulgence and excess festivities.  First up is Halloween where people of all ages are excited for different reasons.  For the younger kids, it’s about running door to door trying to get as much candy as possible.  For the adults, it’s about picking out the perfect costume for Halloween parties and indulging in food and drinks.  Next, we have Thanksgiving. For anybody who has hosted it, knows that it is a day of relentless cooking, followed by lots of eating, drinking, football (and possibly a nap).  To others, the Fall season has become a phenomenon known as “Pumpkin Spice.”

Once the leaves start changing and the weather transforms to cool Autumn days and nights, everything becomes scented with the unmistakable smell of pumpkin pie.  Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin spice desserts and the list goes on.  The most puzzling aspect of all of this is that many of these products contain little, if any, actual pumpkin in the recipes.  It’s as if your Starbucks coffee is wearing a pumpkin costume for Halloween this year!

So how did we get here?  How did we take this delicious and festive gourd, and turn it into pumpkin spice cheerios at every grocery store?  Like many other things in society, we took a few trademarks of something special, and turned it into a faceless condensed product to market for a few months out of the year.  I suggest that we salvage the holiday tradition and start putting real pumpkin back into pumpkin products.

We obviously have pumpkin pie which everybody loves, but this seasonal squash has many more uses than a simple dessert!  There is nothing wrong with buying canned pumpkin puree to use in your recipes, but if you want to get your hands dirty and put an element of yourself into your cooking, here’s what you need to do.  This basic method of cooking works on more than one level to obtain the maximum amount of pumpkin flavor from the pumpkin.

By cutting your pumpkin into thin strips and roasting it, it will cook out the moisture and start to caramelize the natural sugars, which concentrates the flavor into a delightful pumpkin, ready to use however you’d like.  What you need:

1 Medium sized pumpkin

2 Tablespoons of a natural flavored oil

½ Teaspoon of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Cut a hole in the top of the pumpkin and remove it.  Pull out as much of the strings and seeds as you can.  Cut the pumpkin in half, then take your halves and cut them in half again until you have pieces about 2 inches wide (usually about 8 or so).  Remove any strings or seeds remaining.  Rub oil on the pumpkin pieces, salt, and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Roast in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, flip the pieces and cook for another 15 minutes or until your desired doneness.  Then enjoy!

If you need more information about holiday recipes, please feel free to contact the Prescription Fitness team at info@prescription-fitness.com.