a pumpkin related question

[ratcreature]

Can you freeze pureed pumpkin okay? Because buying a whole pumpkin is much cheaper than buying pumpkin segments per kilo, I now have to deal with something of a pumpkin surplus, and it would be convenient if it was possible to freeze it in manageable portions once I pureed it. Last year when I bought a whole pumpkin I just had two very much pumpkin-themed weeks, but this year I'm wondering whether I couldn't freeze some. (I don't use my freezer much beyond storing vegetables I bought frozen, so I have no experience with freezing fresh vegetables.) I like pumpkin pie, and also soup and such, but not necessarily all pumpkin all week, and you can't buy pureed pumpkin in cans here (at least I have yet to see it offered anywhere), so if it froze well, that would solve two problems.

Also, I need to dust more diligently (or at all really *embarrassed look*). I'm working on a painting and dust motes keep sticking to my wet paint. Yikes.

Comments

[maire]

Here's what I do.

1. Put the whole pumpkin in the oven until it's cooked through. This means I don't have to cut it up while it's hard. I can't believe the effort I used to go to peeling and chopping before cooking!

2. Let it cool down until it's comfortable to deal with.

3. Chop up (often with a spoon) and puree the flesh. Dispose of the skin and seeds.

4. Put the puree into flexible silicone icecube/mini-muffin trays and freeze until solid.

5. Move the puree-cubes to a freezer bag or sealed container in the freezer.

[ratcreature]

Thanks. I cut it up before roasting (didn't peel it though), and kept the seeds for roasting and eating separately as snack. I love pumpkin seeds, so I have no idea why others throw them out, and then I pureed and froze the pulp in freezer bags in small portion sizes I'm likely to use (I don't have mini-muffin trays, or anything like that), except for the amount I'm going to use today or tomorrow for a pumpkin pie.

[vehemently]

Here via network. I roasted a pumpkin this weekend too! And am saving the seeds to roast, probably tonight, with salt and cinnamon. They're just delightfully crunchy.

FWIW, I don't think it's necessary to puree pumpkin before freezing, unless you intend to use it for something puree-oriented later. I roasted the pumpkin in chunks, peeled it after roasting, and then just mashed it enough to make sure it was cooked through before decanting it into serving-sized Tupperwares, which went into the freezer. I usually use pumpkin in things like quiche or risotto or white bean soup, so puree consistency is unnecessary.

This early in the season (for us), I was roasting a pumpkin no bigger than two man's fists together, so got only 3 cups of flesh from it. They'll be considerably bigger two weeks from now, and I agree, too much pumpkin to use up all at once without freezing at least some of it.

[ratcreature]

My favorite way to eat pumpkin is in pie (though everybody here thinks me weird for eating that), so for that puree is necessary, and it works in soup too, which is the other thing I eat with pumpkin.