How to cook a pear-shaped pumpkin so that it is both healthy and tasty

Please advise how to cook a pear-shaped pumpkin? I planted it this year for the first time, before they grew pumpkins only for livestock feed. Despite the fact that the summer was not particularly hot, they reaped a good harvest. The fruits are large, beautiful, sweet, almost all of them had time to ripen. She cooked porridge from them, her son loves her very much, but somehow she was already tired of everyone. What else can you do?

Pear or butternut squash is one of the most popular crops among those who love this vegetable. The point is not only in the sweet pulp, but in the unique structure of the fruits, because most varieties of seeds have very few seeds, and the main part of the insides is occupied by the pulp. It is very tasty and healthy, and it is not surprising that there are many recipes for how to cook pear-shaped pumpkin. It is boiled, stewed, baked, made as first and second courses, and unsurpassed desserts. Another advantage of this pumpkin is its long shelf life. Dense fruits will lie until the next harvest. This makes it possible to cook dishes from them both in winter and in summer.

How to cook pear-shaped pumpkin

You can't tell about all the recipes in a few words, because butternut squash is good in any form. For example, you can make "pumpkin day" and serve mashed potatoes for the first soup, and stuffed baked pumpkin for the second.

Pumpkin soup - puree

If you have some meat stock and a piece of pumpkin left over, you can make a diet soup. Melt a little butter in a saucepan at once and simmer the grated carrot, chopped onion and a piece of celery on it. Finally add the diced potatoes and pumpkin and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour in the broth, but a little, just so that it covers the vegetables, and cook over low heat for 40 minutes. When the soup has cooled slightly, pour it into a blender and mash it. Add remaining stock, heat on the stove and season with salt. Serve sprinkled with herbs.

Stuffed Baked Pumpkin

Take small fruits, cut them lengthwise. Peel off the seeds, and make notches on the pulp, without cutting to the very rind. Now you need to first bake the resulting boats. But before that, generously grease them with a marinade prepared from such products:

• olive oil;
• ground red and black pepper;
• dried thyme;
• garlic passed through a press.

Before stuffing the pumpkin must be baked, otherwise the dish will turn out raw. Roasting time depends on the size of the fruit. Medium-sized vegetables need at least 1.5 hours.

While the pumpkin is baking, prepare the filling. Chop 1 bell pepper and zucchini into small cubes. Cut a little onion - leek rings and fry all vegetables in a pan, pouring in vegetable oil. Finally add 150-200 g of ground pork and beef. When it's cooked, put cheese, cut into small pieces, preferably with a curd consistency. Let it melt and you can start filling the pumpkin.

After the halves are filled, put them in the oven again for a quarter of an hour. The fruit should be soaked in the juice of the filling. Sprinkle with grated hard cheese 5 minutes before finishing.

How to cook whole pumpkin in the oven

Pumpkin, especially round, can serve both as a delicious dish and a container for its preparation. The capacious sizes of the fruits allow them to be used as cauldrons or baking forms.And the dense peel not only does not allow the contents to leak out, but also perfectly withstands the high temperature in the oven. A whole baked pumpkin can hold any filling. Pumpkin is the perfect stuffing vegetable. It goes well with fruits, vegetables, cereals, meat. Stuffed with fresh and dried fruit for a fragrant, sweet and juicy dessert. Milk porridge and even meat side dishes, which are baked right in the fruits, come out very tasty. As you can see, recipes for pumpkin blanks are very diverse, for every taste. But first, it is worth considering some of the nuances of cooking the whole pumpkin.

For whole stuffed pumpkin, choose small fruits. They will bake faster, besides, the family can eat such a dish at one time. Good for this purpose are the varieties Freckle, Detvora, Smile. If you are expecting guests, buy the fruits a little larger, like the Amazon, Vita or Mozoleevskaya pumpkin.

Of course, the vegetables must be ripe. For desserts, keep sweet pumpkins with bright orange flesh. Remember to wash the fruit well. It is very important that the skin is intact, otherwise juice will start to flow out of the damaged areas during baking. If your oven is too hot on the bottom to prevent the vegetable from burning, pour some water into the baking sheet. And if the pumpkin lid "bakes" on top and starts to burn, change it to foil. But before that, let the lid brown well. Put it back in place 15 minutes before the dish is fully cooked so that the pulp "reaches".

If you need more filling, you can scrape off some of the pulp. But do not get carried away, a layer of at least 2 - 3 cm thick should remain so that the fruit does not lose its shape.

Millet porridge with milk in pumpkin

Sweet porridge with a unique pumpkin aroma and a beautiful orange color is remembered by many. This is the taste and smell of childhood. Usually it is boiled in a saucepan, but if you try to bake millet in a pumpkin, you will never return to the old method.

Step by step cooking:

1. Cut a large enough lid on the top of the pumpkin. Choose seeds and fibrous pulp.
2. Rinse the millet, pour inside, taking into account the size of your fruit.
3. Pour milk into the cereal in a 1: 3 ratio.
4. Cover the makeshift pot with the cut-out lid.
5. Place in an oven preheated to 180 ° for 30 minutes.
6. After half an hour, reduce the temperature a little and leave the porridge for 1.5 hours.

Add butter at the end. If at the same time the pumpkin itself is still harsh, leave it for another quarter of an hour.

Pumpkin stuffed with apples

Sweet pumpkin pulp goes well with apple sourness. Raisins will add originality to such a dessert, honey will add sweetness, and cinnamon will add a spicy aroma. For cooking, take a ripe sweet pumpkin, it is better also round in shape. More filling will fit. Wash the fruit, cut off the top, clean the middle well, taking out the seeds with fibers.

Further preparation will not take much time:

1. Pour hot water over a small bag of raisins so that the liquid covers it.
2. While the raisins are swelling, peel 5 apples and cut the core. Chop the fruit into thick slices.
3. Mix raisins with apples, add 2 tbsp. l. honey and 1 tbsp. l. ground cinnamon.
4. Mix well and place the filling in a separate bowl. Spread the inside of the pumpkin with the sweet sauce that remains and add the apples.
5. Cover the pumpkin with foil or a cut lid, put in a mold, where you have previously poured a little water. This will prevent the vegetable from burning.
6. Bake for 1.5 hours at 220 °.

Baked pumpkin with rice and minced meat

The original pilaf is obtained in the pumpkin, and if minced meat is used instead of meat, then it will have a juicy and soft texture. Again, it is better to stuff round-fruit varieties. Although in this case they do not have to be sweet, because it will be a full-fledged second dish.

You can cook one large pumpkin or stuff several small ones. In the latter case, this will shorten the baking time.

Preparation process:

1. Peel the fruit, while removing some of the pulp, so that the wall thickness of about 2 cm remains. Send the pumpkin pot to the oven for half an hour, after rubbing the inside with salt.
2. While the pumpkin is baking, add the filling. Boil rice until half cooked.
3. Fry the onions and carrots in a skillet. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Pass the meat through a meat grinder or take ready-made minced meat. Fry it too, adding vegetable oil.
5. Mix vegetables with minced meat, add a little water. Place the filling in the pumpkin and place the pieces of butter on top.
6. Bake for 1.5 hours.

It is better to serve the dish immediately, hot.

How to cook pumpkin in the microwave

The microwave is the best friend and helper of modern housewives. Dishes in it turn out to be more useful, moreover, they cook faster. You can bake the pumpkin as a whole, using small fruits. But it will turn out more quickly if you cut it into pieces.

The easiest recipe for a delicious dessert:

1. Peel the pumpkin from the skins, seeds and fibers.
2. Cut 300 g of vegetable into cubes or slices, but not too finely so that they retain their shape and do not turn into porridge.
3. Sprinkle the workpiece with 2 tbsp. l. sugar, stir and put in a special microwave dish. Pre-coat it with butter.
4. Add some water to the mold, about 3 tbsp. l. and cover with a lid. Do not forget that it must also be special, designed for the microwave. In our case, there should still be holes for steam to escape.
5. Set the maximum power and 10 minutes on the timer.
6. If the dessert is too watery, send it for another 7 minutes, but without the lid.

By the way, you can bake the pumpkin in a glass form with a lid, then it will be very juicy. Or, at the end, also put the dish without a lid so that the liquid evaporates a little.

Pumpkin contains very useful carotene, but it is best absorbed with fats. Therefore, it is better to serve diet pumpkin baked in the microwave with butter or cream. Sprinkle with cinnamon on top.

Cottage cheese - pumpkin casserole in the microwave

We all love cottage cheese casserole, and if you add sweet pumpkin to it, it will turn out to be both tastier and twice as healthy. The cooking principle is the same as when baking a dessert in the oven. Only time will be needed several times less. This dish can be served for breakfast, and especially children will like it.

First of all, peel off the peel and seeds and bake the pumpkin, cutting it into pieces. For one serving, 500 g of vegetable will be enough. When it cools down, beat in a blender until smooth.

Now stir 500 g of curd with 2 eggs. Add a small packet of vanillin for flavor. If you don't like sugar, you can make a casserole without it, because pumpkin is sweet itself. For a sweet tooth, put a couple of tablespoons of sugar in the curd. If you wish, you can add raisins or dried fruits, it will also be delicious.

Combine both cottage cheese and pumpkin mixtures and place in a glass dish. Pre-grease it with butter. Better to put a little, not very thick layer, so that the casserole is baked well. Set the timer for 12 minutes at maximum power.

To get a nice crust on top, switch the microwave to the "Grill" setting and add another 2 minutes.

Potato garnish with pumpkin in the microwave

This dish will be especially appreciated by vegetarians: fast, simple, tasty, without meat and practically without fat. This is an ideal option to serve as a side dish with meat. Although, if desired, you can also add chicken fillet to the vegetables and "weigh down" the recipe. Then you will receive a ready-made hearty dinner. You should not take pork, it needs more time to cook, and the taste will not be the same.

So, peel 500 g of potatoes and pumpkin, cut them into slices. Add one onion, a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil. Salt, add your favorite spices and herbs. Put the vegetables in a glass dish with a lid, pour in a little water.Place in the microwave at maximum power for 15 minutes.

How to cook pumpkin in a slow cooker

The multicooker offers many benefits. Dishes in it turn out to be more useful, since vegetables retain a maximum of vitamins. And the variety of modes of this modern kitchen technique allows you to make a sweet dessert, or a first or second course. For children, you can steam the pumpkin by placing the slices in a special stand. Pour 4 tbsp into the bowl. water, select 15 minutes on the timer - and your little ones can enjoy delicious juicy wedges. You can also cook a vegetable in the "Stew" mode, choosing a time of 1 hour.

Recipes for dishes with pumpkin for a multicooker almost do not differ from the usual cooking on the stove or in the oven. The main thing is to choose the right mode so that the vegetable does not burn, but also does not remain raw. In addition, you should consider what other foods are added to the dish:

1. For a pumpkin and fruit dessert, the "Stew" mode, timer 1 hour is suitable. Don't forget to add some water to the bowl.
2. For casserole with cottage cheese - Baking mode, timer 45 minutes. And an additional 20 minutes of exposure in the "Heating" mode.
3. Sweet pies, muffins - “Baking” mode, timer from 1 hour.
4. Porridge with milk - “Milk porridge” mode.
5. Soup - puree - "Stew" mode, timer for 40 minutes for cooking vegetables. After grinding - another 10 minutes in the same mode.
6. Roast with pumpkin, potatoes and meat - “Baking” mode for frying for 30 minutes and another 2 hours - “Stewing”.

Pumpkin and carrot juice in a slow cooker

Separately, it is worth noting another excellent function of the multicooker. It is possible to prepare very healthy juices in it, using the same "Stew" mode. Its temperature is no more than 95 °, which allows you to preserve the maximum vitamins.

Peel 800 g of sweet pumpkin and 400 g of juicy carrots, cut them into small pieces. Place in a bowl, add 1 liter of water and simmer for 1 hour. Now strain the liquid and run the vegetables through a blender to make a puree. Add 400 g of sugar if desired to keep the juice sweet. Return the vegetable puree to the bowl again, pour in the same water in which the fruits were cooked, and add another 0.5 liquid. Bring to readiness in the same mode for 15 minutes. The juice is ready.

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