The best unusual pumpkin recipes: Try pumpkin pralines, pumpkin ketchup, or pumpkin pancakes!

It’s finally pumpkin time again! The orange-colored fruit shines at us from everywhere. But why only ever prepare pumpkin soup or other hearty pumpkin dishes? We have put together original sweet recipes with pumpkins for you.

1. Pumpkin Pancakes

The fluffy pancakes get a slightly nutty note from the butternut pumpkin shavings in the batter. Pumpkin seeds and roasted pumpkin shavings provide a crispy topping. Perfect with: maple syrup or our pumpkin jam.

2. Pumpkin Pistachio Tiramisu

Who says tiramisu always has to be biscuits and cocoa powder? Spicy nutmeg squash, chopped pistachios, and creamy mascarpone form a heavenly alliance in this dessert – try it!

3. Sweet quark cake with pumpkin and rosemary

Nutty pumpkin on a creamy bed of quark – heavenly! The rosemary completes the taste experience. The great thing about this juicy cake: It is not too sweet and is therefore suitable for all kinds of occasions.

4. Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

ingredients

…for the yeast dough

• 160 g cooked, pureed pumpkin
• 450 grams of flour
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 packet of dry yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 80 g margarine, melted
• 200 ml soy milk

…for the filling

• 50 g margarine, melted
• 30 grams of brown sugar
• 30 grams of white sugar
• 3 tsp cinnamon

…for the icing (if you like)

• powdered sugar
• soy milk

That is how it goes

1. First, prepare the yeast dough. To do this, mix all the dry ingredients together before adding the pumpkin, soy milk, and margarine. Knead everything into an elastic dough and leave covered in a warm place for 1 hour.
2. Roll out the dough on a floured work surface into a rectangle. Melt butter, and mix sugar and cinnamon. Spread the butter over the dough and spread the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over it. Now the dough is rolled up and cut into slices about 2-3 cm thick. Place the snails on a baking sheet, cover with a cloth and let rise again for about 30 minutes.
3. Bake at 175 °C (circulating air) for about 15-20 minutes.
4. Let the snails cool down a bit. If you like, you can also prepare a frosting from powdered sugar and soy milk, which is decoratively distributed on the snails.

5. Pumpkin Chocolate Pralines

Pumpkin purée and chocolate drops are hidden under the sweet chocolate glaze – heavenly! The pumpkin pralines are also great as a souvenir.

Ingredients

• 75 g cooked pumpkin (e.g. Hokkaido)
• 55 grams of butter
• 60 grams of brown sugar
• 60 g powdered sugar
• 1 pinch of vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt
• 120 grams of flour
• 1 pinch of ground cloves
• 1 pinch of cinnamon
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 75 g chocolate chips
• 300 g couverture (whole milk or dark chocolate, depending on your taste)
• sprinkles

That is how it goes

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin flesh, butter, and sugar.
2. Add flour, vanilla, and spices. Continue beating until the mixture is homogeneous. Sprinkle chocolate drops.
3. Place the dough in the freezer for an hour until it starts to set.
4. With the help of 2 teaspoons, form small balls, which you place individually on a plate lined with baking paper. Put the balls in the freezer for 2 hours, preferably overnight.
5. Melt the couverture in a water bath. Dip the chocolates in with a toothpick, sprinkle with sprinkles and place in the fridge until the couverture has hardened. The chocolates will keep in an airtight container for about a week.

It’s starting again: Pumpkin season starts as early as August, the fruit is available almost everywhere from September and pumpkin season reaches its peak in October. However, the different varieties have different seasons – and they do not all store equally well…

Like so many other things, the pumpkin is not a German or European fruit: Seafarers brought the seeds of the pumpkin to Europe and it is now native to many gardens here – you can find tips on how to plant a pumpkin in the article. In addition to the increasing popularity of Halloween, the vegetarian-vegan cooking trend in particular is likely to have contributed to the pumpkin boom.

Ornamental pumpkins are used by many as decoration in autumn. Because of the sweet and at the same time nutty taste, it is also valued for rich, filling and yet not high-calorie pumpkin soups and for curry dishes. It is rich in vitamins, potassium, zinc and other nutrients, and the yellow varieties are also rich in carotene. But when is pumpkin actually in season?

When is pumpkin season?

The pumpkin likes it hot and sunny. The pumpkins are planted from the end of April to mid-May; from June it will be too late again. Pumpkins that are then planted will no longer come to fruition.

The pumpkin season starts at the end of July at the earliest, typically at the end of late summer in August.
Pumpkin season peaks in the fall months of September and October and lasts until frost.

Many pumpkin dishes are part of the autumn season. But did you know that you can also eat pumpkin raw?
Pumpkin soup or pumpkin puree are classics, but if you’re looking for more variety, you can also eat pumpkin raw. You can eat many types of pumpkin uncooked without worry, but to be on the safe side, you should still follow a few tips before doing so.

Eating pumpkin raw: when is it safe?

There is a rule of thumb when eating raw pumpkins: edible pumpkins are good raw vegetables, but you should stay away from ornamental pumpkins! Because ornamental gourds contain the bitter substance curcurbitacin, which is toxic even in small amounts and can cause nausea and tachycardia, according to the Federal Center for Nutrition (BZfE). The best way to recognize a decorative pumpkin is that it is much smaller than its grocery store relatives and often a much more striking color and shape. It is also marked as such in the store.

On the other hand, you can eat almost all types of pumpkin available in the supermarket raw without hesitation. According to the BZfE, the toxic curcurbitacin was mostly bred from them by the producers. The following pumpkins taste best in raw recipes:

nutmeg squash
Butternut Squash
Hokkaido pumpkin

Already knew? You can not only eat pumpkin from the shops raw, but sometimes also with the skin! For example, you can save yourself the trouble of peeling the Hokkaido pumpkin before processing it.

Better not to eat pumpkin from the garden raw

While growing your own pumpkins in the garden is a good idea, it’s best not to eat your harvest raw. Because even if you use seeds from which a pumpkin should actually grow, so-called reverse mutations can cause poisonous cucurbitacins to form again in the pumpkin. This crossbreeding is particularly dangerous because you often cannot tell with the naked eye whether the bred pumpkin is poisonous or not.

Incidentally, such a mutation can also occur if you use your own seeds from the previous year. Even with tested organic seeds, there is a risk that your pumpkin will crossbreed with a poisonous ornamental pumpkin that may be growing in your neighbor’s garden. That’s why it’s best to play it safe and only eat pumpkin raw if you bought it from a store.

Eating raw pumpkin: This is how you do the taste test!

A certain residual risk also remains with purchased pumpkins. Before you can safely eat pumpkin raw, you should always do a taste test. In general, only use pumpkins that you bought in a grocery store.

This is how the taste test works with raw pumpkin:

First cut off a small piece of the raw pumpkin. Refrain from seasoning the pumpkin, otherwise you will no longer be able to perceive the pure taste.
Now put the piece of pumpkin in your mouth and see if you notice a bitter taste.
Don’t swallow the gourd, instead spit it out after the test.
If the pumpkin tastes bitter, it may contain harmful bitter substances.
In this case, do not eat the pumpkin raw and do not cook it either! It is better if you dispose of the pumpkin on the compost to be on the safe side.

Pumpkin Spice Latte is a popular hot drink, especially in the fall. We’ll show you how easy it is to prepare your own Pumpkin Spice Latte.

In order to drink Pumpkin Spice Latte, you don’t have to go to a joint of controversial multinationals like Starbucks. In this article we will show you how you can make the popular hot drink yourself.

Making Pumpkin Spice Latte yourself has many advantages:

You decide for yourself which ingredients you use.
There is less waste from disposable cups.
You can use less sugar.
you save money
Tip: You can prepare the Pumpkin Spice Latte particularly quickly if you have Pumpkin Spice and pumpkin puree in stock.

Pumpkin Spice

Mix all of the spices together according to the instructions in the Pumpkin Spice: Spice Blend Recipe article. Store the autumnal spice in tightly closed jars in a dark, cool and dry place.

pumpkin puree

You can also easily make the pumpkin puree for your Pumpkin Spice Latte yourself. In the article Fine pumpkin puree: How to make it yourself, you will find out how it works. Keep the fresh pumpkin puree tightly closed in the refrigerator. Stored cold, it stays fresh for up to five days. Alternatively, you can freeze it in small portions. Tip: Use ice cube trays to freeze, as you only need a tablespoon of pumpkin puree to make one serving of Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Pumpkin Spice Latte: The Recipe

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon nectar
1 tbsp Pumpkin Spice
1hot espresso
150 ml milk or foamable plant drink
1 tablespoon pumpkin puree

Directions:

Place 1 teaspoon of agave nectar in a small bowl. Note: If you like your Pumpkin Spice Latte unsweetened, you can omit the agave syrup.
Mix the Pumpkin Spice well with the agave syrup until you get a smooth spice syrup.
Prepare the espresso.
Warm the milk and froth it.
Mix the frothed milk with the espresso, the spice syrup and the pumpkin puree.
Pour your Pumpkin Spice Latte into a coffee mug and decorate with a dollop of frothed milk.
Sprinkle the milk foam with a touch of Pumpkin Spice and enjoy the autumnal hot drink.

Ingredients for Pumpkin Spice Latte: You should know that

Whenever possible, purchase high-quality, organic spices when preparing Pumpkin Spice Latte. You can find useful tips for this in the article: Buy organic spices: the most important brands and online shops. Since all four spices are exotic ingredients from Asia, Africa or South America, you should also look out for a fair trade seal. You are committed to fair wages, good working conditions and environmental protection in the growing countries.

Coffee, too, has a long journey behind it before it reaches the supermarket shelves in Germany. Therefore, buy fair trade coffee whenever possible. Or would you like to try one of the regional coffee alternatives instead? Regional food has shorter transport routes and therefore leaves a smaller CO2 footprint.

Tip: If you don’t have an espresso machine or pot, you can also brew a strong filter coffee.

You can also prepare your Pumpkin Spice Latte vegan by using a foamable plant-based milk as a milk substitute. As a local alternative to agave syrup, you can use a teaspoon of honey.

The bishop’s cap is a type of pumpkin that is best known for its unusual shape. You can find out more about the characteristics of the special vegetable variety in this article.

Bishop’s cap: ornamental pumpkin with taste

The pumpkin owes its name “bishop’s hat” to its special shape: it is round and flat at the bottom. At the top is a smaller part that sits on top of the rest of the pumpkin like a cap. Most of the bishop’s hat is colored orange and crossed by a yellow-green pattern. That is why this variety has made a name for itself primarily as an ornamental pumpkin.

While most ornamental gourds are inedible, bishop’s caps can also be used in the kitchen. It has a sweetish-nutty taste and a relatively floury consistency. Only the shell and the upper part of the “cap” cannot be eaten. You can therefore simply peel the pumpkin and then bake, boil, steam or fry it in a pan.

Alternatively, you can hollow out the bishop’s cap pumpkin beforehand and cook it whole in the oven. You can use the pulp for a pumpkin soup recipe, for example, and then serve the soup decoratively in the baked pumpkin.

In addition to soups and stews, the bishop’s cap is also suitable as an ingredient for salads and casseroles or as a side dish, for example in the form of baked pumpkin wedges or pumpkin puree. Spices and herbs that go particularly well with the flavor of the pumpkin variety include garlic, thyme or curry powder.

Plant your own pumpkin

If you want to plant the bishop’s cap in your own garden, it’s best to get a young plant from a specialist retailer. You should then note the following:

Grow your own bishop’s cap pumpkin:

The pumpkin needs a warm and preferably sunny location.
The soil should be humic, nutrient-rich, permeable and well loosened.
You can plant young plants outdoors from mid-May. Alternatively, you can also grow the bishop’s hat from seeds. You sow these directly outdoors from May or prefer them indoors from mid-April.
How to plant bishop’s hats:

Before you plant the pumpkin plant, you should loosen the soil well and add some compost as a starter fertilizer.
Then first place the young plant in a container with water so that the root ball can soak up moisture.
Then put the bishop’s cap in a sufficiently large planting hole, press the soil firmly again and water the area generously.
If you want to grow several pumpkin plants, you should make sure that there is a distance of about one meter between the plants.
Care of the bishop’s cap:

The bishop’s cap is an easy-care pumpkin: it is sufficient to water it regularly and to provide it with some organic fertilizer about every two weeks. Here you can find out how you can easily produce biodegradable fertilizer yourself: Fertilizer for plants: make it yourself naturally.
To prevent pests (especially slugs), you can sprinkle some coffee grounds around the plant or build a barrier around the squash using natural materials (like wood shavings).
You can already harvest the first ripe pumpkins in late summer or early autumn of the first year of cultivation.

Recipe: Stuffed Bishop’s Hat

A bishop’s cap filled with rice and vegetables from the oven is a warming and filling dish, especially in autumn and winter. When buying the ingredients, make sure they are organic if possible to avoid synthetic pesticides. You can get the bishop’s cap pumpkin from German cultivation from September to January. You can also buy mushrooms, carrots and onions regionally almost continuously during this period.

Ingredients:

1bishop’s hat
5 tablespoons rapeseed oil
Salt pepper
2 teaspoons Ras el Hanout
100 g wholegrain rice
1 onion
2 clove(s) garlic
2 medium carrots
150 gmushrooms
2 tbsp tomato paste
150 ml vegetable broth

Directions:

Cut off the cap of the bishop’s hat.
Use a spoon to scoop out most of the flesh, leaving the edge of the squash only about an inch wide. Set aside the pulp of the bishop’s hat for later use.
Brush the inside of the pumpkin with about two tablespoons of rapeseed oil and sprinkle with some salt and ras el hanout.
Now put the hollowed-out bishop’s cap pumpkin in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius top and bottom heat for about 30 minutes.
Cook the rice according to package directions in a little salted water. Depending on the type of rice, this takes about 20 to 30 minutes.
Cut the onion and garlic into small cubes and sauté them in the remaining rapeseed oil in a pan.
Cut the carrots into small cubes and add them to the other ingredients in the pan. Allow the mixture to cook over medium-high heat for about five minutes.
Chop the mushrooms into slices and also cut the pumpkin pulp into small pieces. Add both ingredients to the pan and let the vegetables sauté for another five minutes.
Now add the tomato paste and the rice and fry everything for another three to four minutes.
Season with salt, pepper and ras el hanout.
Pour the mixture of rice, vegetables and bishop’s cap into the squash and pour over the vegetable broth. Then put the bishop’s cap back on.
The filled pumpkin is now put in the oven for another 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. After half the time you can remove the lid again.

Pumpkin is delicious, healthy, often locally grown and always versatile. The processing can be exhausting because the shell is hard. But: With some varieties, you can simply eat the pumpkin skin as well – we’ll show you when to peel the pumpkin – and how.

For most varieties of autumn fruit, pumpkin season in Germany is from the end of August or the beginning of September to November. Since almost all species can be stored well, you can often still get home-grown produce well into spring – you can find all the details in the Utopia seasonal calendar.

Many peel the vegetables and also hollow them out. It’s a shame about the beautiful skin, because you can also eat it with edible pumpkins!

Can you eat pumpkin with skin?

In principle, you can eat almost any pumpkin with its skin on. But since the skin is often very hard, it takes much longer to cook than the flesh until it softens. Therefore, with some varieties and preparation methods, it may be advisable to peel the pumpkin. We have put together an overview of the individual pumpkin varieties for you.

Hokkaido

The Hokkaido is our most popular representative, you can get it in every supermarket. It is round, medium-sized, grooved and bright orange on the outside and inside. There is no need to peel a Hokkaido squash: the squash skin is safe to eat.

It doesn’t matter whether the Hokkaido is baked in the oven, made into a soup or fried: the skin can remain on and, according to some (hobby) cooks, even gives a better aroma than without the skin. But if you want to grate the Hokkaido to make vegetable pancakes or potato pancakes, you should peel the Hokkaido pumpkin, because the roasting time here may not be long enough for the skin to soften.

Butternut

The butternut is also very popular. Quite different from the Hokkaido, it has a pale yellowish smooth skin and is pear-shaped, its flesh is light orange, and it has a subtle buttery flavor. The butternut squash has a very thin but quite hard skin.

Peeling butternut is easy with a potato peeler. Whether it is really necessary or whether you can eat the pumpkin with the skin depends on the recipe. Basically, the butternut shell is edible – but it takes a relatively long time to soften.

If you want to roast the butternut squash in the oven, you can try it with the skin on. Even if you want to cook and puree the butternut for a soup until soft, you don’t necessarily have to peel it. But if you’re just sautéing it for a stir-fry, for example, it’s easier to peel it.

If you don’t want to throw away the peel, you can easily use it to make a delicious vegetable dish: Simply chop, fry or cook until soft – for example with onions, spices and coconut milk.

Basically you can eat butternut with shell. It is only advisable to peel the pumpkin for preparation methods in which it only cooks for a short time.

There is a delicious vegetarian butternut recipe for pasta on the minzgrün blog, you can find one for oven-baked butternut, for example, at Fleckenwohl. There are more recipes with butternut at eatsmarter.de. Here you will find a recipe for pumpkin jam and pumpkin chutney.

Nutmeg squash

The nutmeg squash is round but rather flat, grooved on the outside and usually larger than the Hokkaido or butternut – it can weigh up to 40 kilograms. The skin is green, brownish or orange and the flesh is yellow to orange. Nutmeg has a hard and rather thick skin.

In theory, you can eat the pumpkin with the skin on. However, the skin takes a relatively long time to soften during cooking, so depending on the dish, it may be advisable to peel the nutmeg pumpkin. If it is cooking for a long time (e.g. in the oven or for soup), you can leave the shell on, with shorter cooking times it is better to peel the nutmeg.

To peel the pumpkin or not: other varieties

Although there are actually hundreds of different types of pumpkin, we know two types in particular: Hokkaido and Butternut, and more rarely the larger nutmeg pumpkin. These three varieties alone are versatile and tasty.
But at weekly markets, in well-stocked vegetable and organic shops or at self-service stands on the side of the road, you can find many more pumpkin varieties that you should definitely try. The same applies here: you don’t have to peel many of them.

Patisson:
Small (approx. 10-25 cm in diameter), its shape is reminiscent of a UFO. It is available in yellow, white, green and even two-tone. The Patisson does not keep as long as other varieties. You don’t have to peel it: you can eat this variety well with the skin, very small specimens even in one piece and raw. Patisson is also very suitable for filling and cooking in the oven.

bishop’s cap:
Medium-sized, round, rather flat representative with a cap-like “attachment”, also known as a Turkish turban. Should not be eaten with the skin on. Because of the shape, it is difficult to cut the flesh out of the squash, so it is often cooked hollowed out and filled.

Spaghetti Squash:
Elongated, rather small, with a beige to yellow skin and threadlike flesh. Cook the spaghetti squash whole (pierce the skin first!). You can then cut it in half and pull out the “spaghetti” or just spoon them out of the bowl. We have more delicious spaghetti squash recipe ideas for you.

Yellow hundredweight (giant hundredweight):
Round giant pumpkin with orange skin and yellow flesh that can weigh up to 50 kilograms. Good for desserts – and hollowing and carving for Halloween. Theoretically edible with pumpkin skin, but it is quite hard and is therefore usually removed.

Baby Bear:
Small, round (approx. 10 cm in diameter), with a dark orange, ridged skin and yellow flesh. Good for soups and desserts. The skin is very hard, so it’s better to peel this pumpkin – or scoop out the flesh.

buttercup:
Rather small, round fruit vegetable with a small cap-like top, dark green skin and orange flesh. The skin is very hard, so it’s easier to eat it without the skin, but peeling the squash isn’t always easy. Good for stuffing, casseroles or baking.

The pumpkin plant is very important for agriculture. It is used for food, some of its varieties are grown as animal feed, and representatives of certain nations make a variety of things from pumpkins, sometimes very unusual. These fruits are very diverse, and they readily take root in a wide variety of conditions, demonstrating powerful abilities for survival.

1. The world’s largest pumpkin is gigantic. The record weight specimen was grown in Belgium, and its weight was more than a ton – 1190 kg.
2. In South America, the Indians cultivated pumpkins long before the arrival of the Europeans.
3. These plants are both annual and perennial. There are only about 100 species of annuals.
4. From the point of view of botany, pumpkin, like watermelon, belongs to berries.
5. Soups, pastries, and many other dishes are made from pumpkin in different countries.
6. In total, there are now about 800 varieties of this plant in the world, but only a quarter of them can be eaten.
7. Modern pumpkins appeared on Earth very recently, about 7000 years ago. Most likely, they were bred by the first breeders from among the ancient people.
8. The homeland of the pumpkin is Mexico. Since then, this plant has spread throughout the world.
9. Due to the high content of vitamins A and E, regular consumption of pumpkin in food slows down the aging process.
10. Vitamin T in pumpkins helps the body absorb heavy foods more easily.
11. The iron content of pumpkin pulp is higher than that of any other vegetable.
12. On average, pumpkin is 90% water. The exact value depends on the plant variety.
13. In Germany, in the city of Ludwigsburg, a pumpkin festival is held every autumn.
14. Zucchini, cucumbers, and watermelons are botanically related to pumpkin plants.
15. Since ancient times, the Irish have carved lanterns for the Samhain holiday, which became the prototype of Halloween, from rutabagas. In the United States, their descendants decided that pumpkin was easier to carve because of its softness.
16. French explorer Jacques Cartier, the first among Europeans to discover pumpkins, mistook them for giant watermelons.
17. The flowers of some types of pumpkins are quite edible.
18. In ancient times, many healers believed that pumpkin helped with snake bites. In fact, this is not the case.
19. Fresh pumpkin juice is a natural sleep aid.
20. Pumpkin seeds are very useful, and the seeds of a fully ripe pumpkin are an order of magnitude more useful than seeds of a young one.