Roast Apple Pumpkin – Scrumptious!
There is more to do with pumpkins then just carve them for Halloween and the truth is so many people dismiss pumpkins from their diet but they are a great vegetable – full of goodness.
As part of the pumpkin family, squashes are a marvellously healthy vegetable providing 457% of the daily value per serving in vitamin A, 42% daily value in vitamin C, The potassium and manganese content in squash is good, too, with 17% and 18% daily values respectively, along with healthy amounts of vitamins E, B, B6 (pyridoxine), thiamin, niacin, folate, calcium and magnesium, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, and pantothenic acid.*
So…I decided that from the huge variety of pumpkins I picked at Pumpkin Moon, I would choose one to bake and see how pumpkin went down with the family. Not being an ambitious cook, I settled upon a simple but (I thought) effective recipe below…
Recipe…
1 pumpkin (I chose a carnival pumpkin recommended for being juicy)
1 bramley apple
1/4 teaspoon of caster sugar
Sprinkle of cinnamon
Sprinkle of water
Squeeze of lemon juice
Method…
This is easy peasy. I simply cut around the stalk and created a ‘pumpkin top hat’ which gave me a way in to scoop out all the pumpkin seeds and stringy filling.
Once hollowed with only the good pumpkin flesh left, I peeled and roughly chopped the bramley apple and put it in a bowl. I added the cinnamon, sugar, water and lemon juice to the bowl and mixed before stuffing the pumpkin with the mixture.
I replaced the pumpkins top hat and put the whole thing in a roasting dish and baked it in the oven on 200 degrees (fan oven) for 45 minutes. I knew the pumpkin was cooked when the skin started to brown and the pumpkin itself was squashy…
I carefully lifted the wobbly pumpkin onto a plate and simply cut into it. The apple mixture spilled out and I scooped the pumpkin flesh out on top. I served with ice cream but why not lavish this with cream or custard. Yum.
Pudding is always an important part of the dinner in our house with a four year old to placate – I have to say my four year old liked the dish a lot! I gave a ratio of about 75% apple mixture to 25% pumpkin and I had a happy household.
So…try pumpkin as part of your meal plan this Halloween and you may end up with a new favourite.
Pumpkin Moon can be found at Old Chatham Road, Sandling, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 3BE. Follow signs for Tyland Barn and then the signs for Pumpkin Moon. Tel: 07776 194901 Email: [email protected] or visit their website: www.pumpkinmoon.uk
