How to eat your pumpkin

Three suggestions.

Here are three (or four, actually) ideas for using your pumpkin if you enjoy seasonal produce. In Romania, we traditionally don’t celebrate Halloween (or at least we didn’t before this global trend hit us), so we buy pumpkins mainly to cook our favourite Autumn dishes. 

In my previous post, I was telling you about pumpkin pie the Romanian way (see here) and promised you more ideas for what to cook with pumpkins. 

Dovleac copt: baked pumpkin wedges

This is the simplest and most delicious way to enjoy pumpkins. There is no need to peel the slices or drizzle them with honey or sugar. Put them in a preheated oven at 180C for 35-40 minutes. While baking, the natural sugar in the pumpkin will seep through the flesh and caramelise on top.

I love the slightly bitter-smoked flavour of the skin before I bite into the sweet flesh. Also…your home will smell heavenly, and your kitchen will get warm and cosy, surrounded by this autumnal scent.

Roasted pumpkin seeds

One thing I sometimes do, if the pumpkin seeds look relatively plump, is to wash them, pat dry with a paper towel, toss in salt and oil, then put them in the oven. I roast them at 200C for about 20 minutes or until the husks look toasty and ready to split.

In Romania, we like to roast pumpkin and sunflower seeds in their husks and then crack them open between our front teeth. It’s a skill! It is a good way to keep yourself occupied in front of the TV when watching that thriller or a habit to learn when you want to quit smoking (although it is frowned upon if you eat them in public).

Ciorbă de dovleac - A clever ‘whey’ with pumpkin

The easiest way to turn your pumpkin into a dish is to make soup.

My mum used to make a creamy soup served with croutons, which is popular all over the world, including Romania. I didn’t like it. I only loved the croutons sprinkled generously with paprika.

However, a few years ago, while researching traditional Romanian autumn recipes, I came across a ciorbă de dovleac, pumpkin soup. As always with a Romanian ciorbă, there has to be a sour element included in the ingredients list. In this case, it was whey. Yes, whey from leftover cheese or butter making. It also had cheese and smoked lardons, although the latter were optional.

So, I’m taking inspiration from this tradition and offering you the recipe below, which is made with ingredients you can find in any shop.

Ingredients

Serves 2 hungry beasts or 4 little mouths

700g diced pumpkin, after you’ve peeled and deseeded it

700ml vegetable stock

180g sour cream or buttermilk

20g plain flour

100g salty cheese, Romanian telemea or Greek-style Feta cheese

A few sprigs of thyme or use sage, rosemary or summer savory.

For the topping

2-3 tablespoons of oil

50g pumpkin seeds, without husks

1tsp paprika.

Method:

Put the pumpkin and vegetable stock in a pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until the pumpkin is soft but not mushy. Taste and adjust the saltiness, then take the pan off the heat. 

In the meantime, use a small frying pan to heat the oil. Add the pumpkin seeds and fry quickly on high heat for 2-3 minutes, shaking the pan. They will pop and jump up and down in the pan but keep your cool. The moment they start to form a dark skin, take the pan off the heat and stir in the paprika and a good pinch (or two) of salt. 

In a separate bowl, mix the sour cream with the flour, then stir it into the soup, one tablespoon at a time. The pan is off the heat, yes? Keep stirring so the sour cream doesn’t split. 

Serve immediately, crumbling the Feta cheese on top and sprinkling with chopped herbs and paprika pumpkin seeds. Drizzle some of the oil from the pan on top.

Poftă bună. Bon appetit.

For your Christmas list….these two books are currently at very good prices on Amazon UK and U.S. and in independent bookshops. Carpathia (click on the title) has the recipes of the most iconic Romanian dishes, while Tava focuses on desserts and the story of the ethnic communities in Transylvania. Loads of travel inspiration in both, too.