Cooking a whole pumpkin is super easy! There’s no reason to buy canned pumpkin; I don’t think I ever have. Pumpkins are only a few dollars at the store starting in September so I can buy a few, cook them, scoop the flesh into ziploc bags, and freeze it until the next September. Come to think of it, I don’t remember the last time I bought one either, though. Now that we’re on a farm we’ll always grow them. In previous houses we only grew them some years. The years we didn’t I somehow always got one for free. Kids would bring one home from an activity, the church would be getting rid of some after Halloween, neighbors would put them on the curb for the trash man. Free pumpkin!
Once you have your pumpkin the steps are simple to cook it.
How to cook a pumpkin
Ingredients
- Pumpkins!
- Any size or shape.
Instructions
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
- Put the pumpkin on the foil lined sheet.
- Put the oven rack on the lowest option.
- Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Put the pumpkin in the oven.
- Bake for 1 hour for a small pumpkin, 2 hours for a large pumpkin.
- When it's soft enough to pull apart with your hands, take it out. Pull it apart, let cool. Scoop out the seeds and cook or discard. Scoop out all the flesh and put in plastic bags or containers to freeze to use in any recipe.
Now that I wrote these steps and looked for pictures of me cooking pumpkins I realize I don’t follow them! I have a picture of a lone little pumpkin in the oven not on a foil lined cookie sheet not on the bottom rack. If you don’t over cook it, it won’t spill. But a lot of times I forget to watch it and some juice could spill out and drip in the oven so I usually use a rimmed cookie sheet.
The pumpkin is cooked when it’s nice and soft (meaning you can pull it apart with your hands.) Let it cool. Then pull it apart with your hands. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard or roast them or feed them to your chickens. Scoop out flesh and put it in a ziploc bag or container. Refrigerate if you’re going to use in a few days. Freeze up to a year for pumpkin dishes all fall and winter like my family’s favorite pumpkin chili.