Pumpkin Snacks!

Waste not want not! Turn your pumpkin carving into tasty treats!

Every October, millions of pumpkins meet the same sad fate. They're carved into grinning jack-o'-lanterns, admired for a night or two, then tossed in the bin once November arrives. A staggering amount of food waste generated by a holiday that's supposed to be about fun, not rubbish.

Here's the irony: pumpkins are food. The same orange squash that sits on your porch is packed with fibre, vitamin A, and potassium. And when pumpkins rot in landfills, they don't simply decompose, they release methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. So this Halloween, before you scoop and discard, consider giving your pumpkin a second life in the kitchen.

Savoury Seeds Beer Snack

The seeds you scrape out are the easiest win. They're nutritious, delicious, and take almost no effort to prepare.

1. Rinse the seeds under cold water, removing any stringy pulp (save the pulp for the bread below).

2. Pat dry and toss with olive oil, salt, and any seasonings you like, paprika, garlic powder, or cinnamon for a sweet version.

3. Spread in a single layer on a baking tray.

4. Roast at 150°C for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden and crisp.

5. Cool completely before storing in an airtight jar.

Most carving pumpkins are stringy and watery, so they're not ideal for pie. But the flesh you scoop out, plus any pumpkin you don't carve, works beautifully in baking once it's cooked down. If you carved your pumpkin, roast the scooped pulp at 175°C until soft, then blend it smooth. Now, move over Banana Bread there’s a new kid in town…

Simple Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

220g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

2 eggs

240g pumpkin puree (made as above)

120ml vegetable oil

200g caster sugar

100g soft brown sugar

 60ml water

Method:

Preheat the oven to 175°C (fan 155°C) and grease a 2lb loaf tin (20cm x 10cm approx).

Whisk the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another, then combine until just mixed.

Pour into the tin and bake for 55–65 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

The result is a moist, spiced loaf that makes the most of your pumpkin, pulp and all!

You could also cook this mix in muffin tins for 20 minutes and top with cream cheese sweetened with icing sugar and some grated lemon zest.