It's that time of year again, pumpkins are popping up everywhere. Because it is almost Halloween, they appear in the streets, but also in the supermarkets and restaurants. On the other hand, pumpkins are also delicious and especially responsible to eat throughout the whole year.
Until recently, I wasn't sure what to do with this hard, unbreakable orange fruit. How do you cut this block of concrete? How do you know a pumpkin is ready to eat? What else can you make of pumpkins besides soup? And why is it such a healthy fruit?
I did some research, it appeared all pretty simple. Had I known this before, I would have used this clever fruit much more. Now I also understand why pumpkin recipes says: "A quick, healthy and easy pumpkin dish".
What is a easy way to cut a rock-hard pumpkin?
Place the pumpkin in the oven or microwave for half an hour. The pumpkin becomes soft and is therefore easy to cut into pieces.
How do you recognize a ripe pumpkin?
When the stem is no longer green, but dry and corky, then you know that the pumpkin is ready to eat!
Why is pumpkin good to eat?
- Good for your immune system
Pumpkin is full of vitamins and minerals that boost your resistance, such as vitamins A, C and E, folic acid and iron. These nutrients help us to strengthen our resistance. - Supports your heart health
Pumpkin contains potassium, which has a beneficial effect on our blood pressure. Pumpkin also contains various antioxidants that help prevent bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing and attaching to your vessel walls, causing them to constrict. Pumpkin helps to keep your blood flowing properly. - Keep your bowels active
Due to the many fibers that the pumpkin contains, the intestines are kept active and healthy intestinal bacteria are nourished.
Time-saving pumpkin recipe
With a busy family live, usually limited time is the challenge to prepare fresh and healthy food. That's why I often make responsible pumpkin bread. See the recipe below. I cut the bread into slices and the other half of the bread I safe into the freezer. When it's time to eat, I heat them up under the grill, put some cinnamon powder on top and it’s like a cake that you eat. Delicious and healthy!
Tip!
Eat the pumpkin skin too! During preparation, the skin softens and contains not only a lot of flavour, but also a lot of nutrients.
Ingredients pumpkin bread
- 1 butternut
- 50 grams of dates without stone
- 3 medium sized eggs
- 150 grams of almond flour
- generous handful of pumpkin seeds
- one and a half teaspoons of baking powder
- handful of walnuts or hazelnuts, almonds or pecans
If you want to sweeten the pumpkin bread a bit, you can add some honey or coconut blossom sugar to the recipe.
Preparation of pumpkin bread
- Pre-heat the oven up to about 175 degrees.
- Place the pumpkin in the oven. After half an hour, check if the pumpkin is already soft enough. Remove the seeds from the pumpkin and mash it into mouse. Mix the pumpkin together with the dates in a food processor or with a hand blender to a smooth batter.
- Beat the eggs lightly and add a pinch of salt. Mix the egg mixture with the pumpkin puree.
- Add the almond flour to this batter and stir until you have no more lumps. Then add the bapk powder and stir well. Finally, mix the nuts through it.
- Pour everything into a cake tin and put it in the pre-heated oven. Bake the pumpkin bread for about 45 to 50 minutes. If the top gets too dark, you can put baking paper on it.
- To check whether the pumpkin bread is done, prick a skewer in it. When it comes out clean and dry, your pumpkin bread is ready! Take the bread out of the cake tin and let the bread cool outside the oven. When the pumpkin bread has cooled down, you can cut it into slices.
- Almond flour is 100% gluten-free, but if that is not so important to you, you can of course also vary with other types of flour, such as buckwheat flour or quinoa flour. The nuts in the pumpkin bread provide a tasty bite and you also immediately receive healthy proteins. If you pack the slices airtight, you can keep them for about 5 days. This pumpkin bread is also very suitable for freezing. Very nice to enjoy it longer!
Our Halloween pumpkin packaging is available!
Below you can see some images of the cheerful consumer packaging. Perfect to offer to your consumer-oriented customers.
Available from week 39 to week 43.
Ask about the possibilities and prices with your contact person.
