Pumpkin Season

I am reveling in the abundance of pumpkins. Our family has been on two hayrides so far with a third scheduled for the near future at Sunny Hill. They are having happy hour hayrides at the farm. How fun!

The pumpkin quinoa from my last post turned out great and I ate it for breakfast with maple syrup and pecans several days. It made me feel good to start my day in such a healthy, tasty way!

The pumpkin recipe of the day is black bean soup. I wanted a simple pumpkin black bean soup recipe so I started with this one on EatingWell.com then I, of course, made modifications since the recipe didn't actually call for pumpkin. I followed the basic recipe adding about 2 c. of fresh cooked pumpkin along with the beans. I served it with plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream and we had fresh muffins, corn tortillas and salsa, too. Of the children that tried it, they loved it. One rebelled and wouldn't taste the soup at all. Always one in the bunch!

Cooking up the pumpkins that you get from the farm is VERY easy. I know I say that a lot. What I do is set the oven to a warm temperature (350), poke holes in my pumpkin, set the pumpkin on a baking sheet or roasting pan with edges and put the sheet and the pumpkin in the oven. I cook it 'til done. Depending on the pumpkin it may start wilting or looking wrinkly. It'll take about an hour depending on the size of the pumpkin. You want the flesh to fall away from the skin and be very tender.

We received two small pumpkins in our CSA basket from Sunny Hill a couple of weeks back. The interesting thing was that they were nearly impossible to poke holes in. The skin was very hard. When I cooked them the skin remained hard like a shell and it was difficult to tell if the pumpkin was done. But, I cooked it for an hour and took it out, cracked it open and inside was the creamiest, most tender pumpkin flesh I have ever had. THANKS, Jean & Mel!!