Oh for goodness sake, I came on here to ask for PUMPKIN or SQUASH recipes and have been sat here for ages

[Enid]

and STILL haven't got round to asking for any ideas

I have three enormous green squashes what do I do with them?

I have a huge pumpkin that needs sorted.

Bought a butternut squash yesterday. It's definitely autumn now I've done that although the weather is is fab forecast of 26 degrees on Sunday!

Sorry back to subject - I have a nice receipe for risotto with pumpkin - will find it and post later.

I'll hold you to it, Buda!

I've got risotto.

Was thinking, bacon, a little onion, pumpkin, risotto and stock.

W/parm cheese on top.

Or pumpkin soup.

I LOVE to eat the seeds!

mm I love squash

what sort have you got? we had some gem squash last week that you just boil, cut in half and then eat (like scooping the flesh out of little cups!).

I love cutting the orange ones up and roasting them because they go all sweet and crispy round the edges.

Pumpkin risotto is very nice. I stole Nigella's recipe for (I think) mushroom risotto in the children's section of How To Eat, but used pumpkins instead. Nice wintery sort of food. You can mix in a bit of green at the final stage (spinach or chard) to make it all a bit less yellow.

Or you can roast it. I peel, core, cut into strips and put into one of those big spanish dishes with sliced onions, garlic cloves and olive oil. You can also add bacon or chorizo if you want a meat element to it. Stick in the oven, roast for 30-40 minutes, when it's browning nicely chuck a tin or two of chopped tomatoes over the top and stick back in the oven for another 30 mins. If you need extra carbs, couscous goes well with it.

Alternatively again, you can make like roast marrow. Cut squash in half, remove seeds, scoop out most of the flesh, chop and fry up with onion, garlic and mince, put the fried meat mixture back into the hollows, pour over some olive oil and possibly chopped toms as well, and stick in the oven and roast until it's all soft. You can put some grated cheese over the top 10 mins before the end if you want.

Makes a great pasta bake. Mix roasted, mashed-up squash or pumpkin with fresh spinach, some mascarpone or creme fraiche, a spoon or two of red or green pesto, and add veg stock until it's a creamy texture. Mix with cooked pasta, parmesan on top, oven bake. You can also add ham or chorizo.

Butternut squash makes a great soup, with onion and milk,vegetable stock. Would need to have recipe to hand to tell you if thats all though.

risotto with sage and walnuts and a tiny bit of chillie is nice too.

Roast cubes with other veg and serve wtih spicy cheese scones and a salad.

its not butternut

its green with a greeny yellow inside

it sounds like a gem squash, enid.

how big are they? if they are gem squash (but these are not normally bigger than your hand), you need to boil them.

like this

I roast all of the ones I get in my veg box (green, yellow, red, butternut). They are always bigger than my had though, with toughish skins. Just cut into eight pieces, put on roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil. 45 mins at 200 then yum.

I think you can roast or even stuff gem squash

I (like many other people in africa!) were given them as a small baby - the taste is not very strong and quite watery and you can boil them, cut in half, scoop out the seeds then mush the stuff left with butter.

Could someone tell me the best way to peel and chop a pumpkin? I struggle every time and seem to waste loads. What sort of knife do you use? A machete?

I just roast all squash (always bigger than my hand though). Much easier than peeling, chopping etc. and just as delicious.

I use a multi purpose vegetable peeler and then a huge kitchen knife to cut them. - Feels like you need a machete sometimes

pumpkin, carrot and ginger soup
roasted with honey and olive oil (I usually throw in a handful of potatoes to make wedges/roast potatoes as well)

Gingerbear, I dont peel my squashes/pumpkins, I just roast/bake/steam with skin on and if it tastes nice at the end of the process we eat it, if not its much easier to separate once cooked.

Bum bum bum!

Just spent AGES typing in not one but two pumpkin recipes and server crashed as I posted!

Off to retype in word and cut and paste - back soon!

mine are huge

bigger than my head

You think yours are huge?

Better pics

You could make quite a lot of risotto with one of those

OK - hopefully this works!!

Pumpkin risotto with leeks, chili and coriander

3 leeks ? white part and 1 inch of green, thinly sliced
one third cup of olive oil
3-5 tspns Aleppo pepper or 2 tspn red pepper flakes
2 lg cloves garlic ? minced
1.5 lbs pumpkin, cut into half inch cubes
half cup of dry white wine
3 cups chicken stock or water
1.5 cups abrorio rice
salt and pepper to taste
Two-thirds cup grated Parmesan cheese
Two-thirds cup chopped coriander

In lg pan, sauté leeks in olive oil for 6-8 mins till translucent. Add pepper, garlic and pumpkin. Saute till all liquid evaporated ? 5-10 mins. Add wine and stir. Add half a cup of water and lower heat. Simmer 10-15 mins till tender ? you can prepare till now several hours in advance.

20 mins before serving bring stock to gentle boil. Keep warm. Heat pumpkin mixture and as it starts to boil add rice and stir well till coated. Pour in half cup of stock and stir till absorbed. Keep adding liquid till all absorbed. After 15 mins or so test rice ? should be al dente. Add salt & pepper to taste. Remove from heat and stir in parmesan.

Serve and add chopped coriander.

I keep bags of pumpkin ready in freezer.

Pumpkin & feta salad

2 cups peeled diced pumpkin
250 grms feta diced
Half red onion finely chopped
2 Tablespoons pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted
1 red pepper, roasted and sliced
rosemary sprigs, crushed garlic

Toss pumpkin in a preheated oven tray with olive oil, fresh rosemary, crushed garlc and freshly ground black pepper. Roast at 200 degrees celcius then cool. Toss pumpkin with feta, onion, basil, pumpkin seeds and pepper in the following dressing:

1 tblspn balsamic vinegar
4 tbls white wine vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
freshly ground pepper
1 and half cups olive oil.

Place all dressing ingredients in food processor and slowly add oil till blended. I just use half the dressing mix as too oily otherwise.

Have a look on the Abel & Cole and Riverford websites - lots of interesting pumpkin and squash recipes there.

I tried two Abel & Cole ones last week - one stuffed spaghetti squash (except I used a sweet dumpling squash cos that's what we'd grown!) and one recipe for roasted butternut squash with sausages - both lovely.

thanks for tip about roasting - will try that.