Dd wants to eat a pumpkin...

[dameofdilemma]

Dd said she loves pumpkin (not sure where she's eaten it, this could be a fabrication tho might be at school). Its one of the few veg I've never cooked. Have had a quick look on Ocado and there don't seem to be any.

When do they come in season and what do I do with it? Also is a real pain to peel and chop like squash? And will it be sickly sweet?

It's just a squash. Make pumpkin soup, risotto, or cubed and roasted in olive oil and herbs. Look on Google for recipes

They're in season now and over the next few weeks and no, not particularly sweet.

If you can't be bothered with peeling etc you can buy pumpkin purée in a tin to make a pumpkin pie with. That's VERY sweet though.

If you want to use the actual veg though then make some soup and add butternut squash as well.... I don't think pumpkins on their own are very tasty. 😂

Carving pumpkins don't taste very nice. You cook pumpkin like squash, it works much the same.

Pumpkin ravioli is gorgeous. It's hard to find, though.

Oops. Looks like both Sainsbury and Tesco stock it.

They’re really bland, or at least the carving ones are. In the US they add a tonne of sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to them, that’s the “pumpkin spice” flavour which appears in autumn, it’s not the actual flavour of pumpkin it’s what you add to it to make it taste of something.

Maybe your DS has had sweet potato and mistook it for pumpkin because of the colour? Anyway, pumpkin soup if you add plenty of cream, garlic and stock is quite nice.

The easiest way to cook pumpkin is to slice a couple of wedges out, (like with a watermelon) wrap in foil with a dab or two of butter, and bake in the oven. Goes well with gammon.

I made a nice pumpkin soup one year. Put all the insides into the slow cooker while we were carving the bloody thing for the kids. I seem to recall it had a shit load of onion or garlic in it to give it some flavour. It's basically just a bit like squash.

I stuff a pumpkin at Halloween. Scoop out the gunk, score a face on it, fill with arrabiata sauce cooked and sausages. Bake until it is soft. Slice in wedges at the table and the brains spill out...

Thanks all - given dd moans when I give her squash (which I can buy ready chopped - thank you Ocado) I think I won't bother!

Strangely I imagined pumpkins to have a lot more flavour than squash for some reason but sounds not.

Sainsburys are selling Munchkins (i.e. really small pumpkins) - so you could always give her one of those so you don't have to faff with a big one....
Pumpkins have a higher water content than butternut squash - hence less flavour