Roasted Pumpkin
Fall is calling me! I’ve never liked the heat of summer. October is my favorite month of the year. I can’t wait for long sleeves, jackets and hoodies, sweaters, apple cider, and the fall color. What’s available seasonally seems to mimic the colors of the leaves. I thought I was jumping the gun a little, since tonight was September 29th. However, I have been getting butternut squash and sugar pumpkins at our local farm store. It’s all in season! I’ve only used fresh pumpkin to make a pumpkin puree before. Tonight I decided to make Roasted Pumpkin.
I wanted my spice mix to mimic the warm spices of autumn but I didn’t really want cinnamon and the cliche pumpkin spice. I’m ok with pumpkin pie spice in my pumpkin pie but am not a big fan of it on everything else. I mixed a small bowl of spices and actually remembered to write down exactly what I put in for once. Boy, am I glad about this. Everybody really loved the spice on the Roasted Pumpkin and now I don’t have to try to recreate it from my memory.
Pumpkins are hard to peel because of those iconic ridges. I sliced it with the skin on and roasted the slices. I was kind of like the Pumpkin Yoda because I just told my family, ‘eat the skin or don’t’ and everybody was confused and thought it was some strange kind of mental test. Starting out, I wasn’t eating it, but figured out pretty quickly that the skin was thin and pretty delicious on most of it. I may or may not have disregarded my fork and just picked up the slices with my fingers. Roasted Pumpkin will be staying on our menu as long into the season as I can still get them!
Roasted Pumpkin
Ingredients
- 1 Sugar Pumpkin
- 4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Spice Mix
- 3 teaspoons Smoked Paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 teaspoon Ground Coriander
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°degrees.
- Slice a sugar pumpkin in half and clean out the seeds and pulp from the cavity (save for roasted pumpkin seeds!).
- Cut the pumpkin into slices and/or wedges 1-2 inches thick. Make them as uniformly thick as you can.. (Slicing pumpkin isn’t easy, just do your best, everything will turn out all right). Arrange slices in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet.
- Drizzle the olive oil on top of all the pumpkin slices.
- In a small bowl mix the smoked paprika, cumin, kosher salt, garlic powder and ground coriander.
- Sprinkle spice mix on top of the pumpkin slices.
- Roast on a lower middle rack in oven for 35-40 minutes until pumpkin is very tender and there is some browning around the edges of the skin.
Modifications
