21 Savory Pumpkin Recipes to Get You Pumped for Fall (2024)

FAQs

Is pumpkin savory or sweet? ›

After all, pumpkin is one of those seasonal ingredients that can be both sweet or savory.

Place in the oven and roast until the skin has blistered and the pumpkin flesh is very soft. Remove from the oven and let cool. Peel the skin away from the pumpkin flesh, and transfer in batches to a food processor. Puree until smooth.

West Indian Pumpkin is a round or oblong squash that is popular in the Caribbean, Central and South America. The color of the skin can vary and can include green, orange and tan hues. The flesh of the West Indian Pumpkin is firm and bright orange with a sweet flavor similar to butternut squash.

You can eat all of the pumpkin - except for its stalk. Whether you can eat the skin or not depends on the variety. Smaller varieties such as onion squash have deliciously edible skin, the skin of larger varieties may be too tough to eat or less than appealing.

Canned pumpkin and pumpkin puree are the same thing. These terms are often used interchangeably in recipes, though you may also see the term solid-pack pumpkin. All these terms mean 100% steamed and pureed pumpkin—no extras, no add-ins—not even in the canned variety.

Pumpkin purée is simply cooked and mashed pumpkin.

Pumpkin purée can be homemade with whole pumpkin or canned and sold in grocery stores. Canned pumpkin purée that says “100% pumpkin” on the label may also contain one or more types of winter squash, like butternut, Hubbard, Boston Marrow, and Golden Delicious.

Based on my taste tests, I think that fresh puree would easily elevate any savory pumpkin dish such as soup or pasta. The fresh, unadulterated flavor and fluffy texture would work wonderfully in savory dishes, especially because even “sugar pumpkins” aren't very sweet on their own.

To complement pumpkin with sweet flavor pairings, consider using spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and vanilla, or sweet ingredients like chocolate, maple, honey, cranberries or brown sugar. Create savory dishes by pairing pumpkin with spices like chilies, cajun, cayenne or pepper.

Pumpkin is notorious for pairing well with warm winter spices – as found in a variety of Moroccan-inspired cuisines. Try incorporating cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cumin and chilli with your pumpkin dishes for flavour-packed feasts.

For cooking, you'll want to use sugar pumpkins (also called pie or sweet pumpkins), which are small and round. Long Island Cheese pumpkins, which are more oblong and can look like a wheel of cheese, are also good to eat. Field pumpkin types are larger, have watery, stringy flesh, and are best for decorating.

What cheese pairs with pumpkin? ›

Blue cheeses like gorgonzola team up well with the notes of dried fruit typical of pumpkin. Another excellent pairing is with a nice fresh goat's cheese since its acidulous notes offset the sweetness of pumpkin.

Pulp. The pulp is part of the pumpkin fruit that we eat, and is often called the 'meat' of the pumpkin. This is what is used to cook soups, pies, bread, and other yummy treats!

Most people think of pumpkins as vegetables because they tend to be less sweet than other fruits. Though they are botanically classified as fruit, in the culinary world, pumpkins are often used in savory dishes and treated as vegetables.

Flavor and texture

Cooked pumpkin, on the other hand, is sweeter. Its taste is often compared to sweet potatoes or squash. Meanwhile, raw pumpkin seeds have a very mild flavor and chewy texture. As such, many people prefer roasting them, which gives the seeds a savory, nutty taste and crunchier texture.

"It's actually a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves." Pumpkin flavoring actually harkens back to the pilgrims, Cundiff says. "In the early 1600s, pumpkins were a source of vitamins and minerals and used in a multitude of dishes prepared to help nourish the pilgrims," Cundiff says.

Pumpkins are the most famous of all the winter squashes, and are most associated with Halloween lanterns. Inside the hard orange or yellow skin, the bright orange flesh is sweet and honied. They are a particularly good source of fibre, as well as a range of vitamins and minerals.