If you want to cut a pumpkin, it is often difficult because of the hard skin. We’ll show you a simple trick that will make cutting the pumpkin much easier.
Pumpkin is a versatile vegetable that you can buy locally grown between August and December, when pumpkins are in season. You can eat the skin of many types of squash and don’t have to throw it away. However, it is a bit hard, making the squash difficult to cut. The skin only softens when it is cooked. For most recipes, however, you will need to cut the squash into small pieces or slices before cooking. For example:
Cut pumpkin into pieces for: pumpkin soup, pumpkin spread and pumpkin pasta
Slice the pumpkin for: Tarte flambée with pumpkin
We’ll show you a trick on how to cut the peel more easily.
Cutting the pumpkin: The cooking pot trick
If the pumpkin skin is very robust or the knife is no longer very sharp, it will be difficult to cut a pumpkin. But a simple trick helps to make it easier:
First wash the pumpkin thoroughly.
Then place the squash in a pot filled with water. The water should come up a little to halfway up the squash.
Let the water simmer for about five minutes.
After that, the squash will be much softer and easier to cut.
Dice the pumpkin
You can then cut the pumpkin into cubes or slices. Both are possible with this guide:
1. Halve the pumpkin. To do this, place the knife on the stalk of the pumpkin and divide the pumpkin once.
2. Now the pumpkin with the pulp is open. For most recipes you will now have to hollow out the pumpkin. This is easy to do with a spoon. In addition, you should usually remove the cores. You don’t have to throw them away, you can roast the pumpkin seeds. They’re a tasty snack.
3. To cut the pumpkin into cubes or slices, place the pumpkin half with the open side on a wooden board. Then cut the pumpkin into slices one to two centimeters thick. If you are right-handed, start at the end of the pumpkin that is to the right of the stalk.
Note: If you want to use the pumpkin in slices (for example, to cover a tarte flambée or a pizza), cut the slices only a few millimeters thick.
4. Now place several pumpkin slices on top of each other and cut off individual cubes.
Note: Be sure to separate the stalk from the pumpkin piece as well.
5. Now you can carry out steps 3 and 4 for the other half of the pumpkin and then process the pumpkin further.
