You can eat those orange pumpkins can't you?

[tutu100]

We carved large pumpkins with the kids yesterday and I have a load of the flesh that I was going to make a curry with. However my MIL said that she'd heard that the large orange pumpkins are now grown just for use as halloween lanterns and not for using as food.

I have slight anxiety issues (don't mind be mocked on this as it sounds so stupid!), but they are fine to eat aren't they. I'm presuming what she means is that they're aren't grown with the idea of being used for cooking rather than they are unsafe to cook.

Yes, they are fine to eat. What on earth is she talking about?

I think you can cook with any of them, but the carving pumpkins just won't be nice because they're grown for size not flavour.

I think.

I remember reading it somewhere

yup, they're all fine to eat..big and orange are just not as tasty as the smaller, denser ones

I think she means what HeiniousHecate said about them being grown for size not flavour, but she saisd they couldn't be used for cooking and because I am slightly over thinking things atm I was worried I was going to poison me and DP. If it's just the flavour I'll chuck in extra spices.

Thank you all for your help and not laughing at me too much . Deep down I did know it was a silly question.

Nope they're not dangerous to eat but they are very watery and tasteless. They make fab soup though if you cook them for a few hours with very little water in a slow cooker. Enjoy!

Smaller ones have more flavour but fine for a spicy soup. Ive also used for risotto. Or vegi goats cheese & pumpkin lasagne if you add lots of other yummy ingredients.

I made some respectable tasting pumpkin muffins yesterday with the pureed flesh of the kids pumpkins.

2kids sounds yummy would you mind sharing the recipe?

Last year I just used a carrot cake recipe and substituted grated pumpkin for carrot.
This year I followed the recipe below, but did is as their muffin suggestion as well as in a loaf tin.
The one in the loaf tin was a bit of a disaster, but the ones in the muffin cases rose more and were less dense and squidgy.

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/2801/spiced-pumpkin-teabread.aspx

Thank You everyone. Just thought I'd report back. Pumpkin Curry went down very well with DP (although I think I'll leave the chickpeas out next time), but you are all right about the flavour. It was lacking that sort of sweet depth of flavour that other pumpkins/squashes have. I wonder if roasting it first would help with the flavour?

they aren't really a variety that was devleoped for eating. Lots of american pumpkin recipes use canned pumpkin which is more like a bnutsquash.