Pureed Pumpkin

Safeway had their Saturday and Sunday sale last week and I got 2 pumpkins for $4.99. I made pumpkin puree today, I had to call my friend Hannah for some tips since I was doing a huge pumpkin and not pie pumpkins like on thriftymom.com. Thanks Hannah!

First off we have our medium sized pumpkin.

Cut the pumpkin in half lengthwise.


clean out all the seeds and guts.

I enlisted the kids to help. Lennon helped too he just had to leave before I got the camera out. Because the pumpkin was so big I had to cut it into quarters. I baked half of the pumpkin at a time.


Place skin up in a 9x13 pan. Add a little water and cover with foil. Bake at 375 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours.

The skin will still be firm but soft on the inside when it is done. I like how Hannah described it - she said "it's like a potato after it has baked" it will smoosh.

Let the pumpkin cool so you can handle it. Then you peel off the skin and put it in the food processor or blender. (Since Hannah told me about the potato thing it made me think of how you can squish the potato out of the peel after it has baked. So I kind of smooshed the pumpkin in the pan to help release it from the skin a bit) Then I used my hands and sometimes a paring knife to get the skin off. It was like peeling sunburned skin! well not that thin of skin but you get the picture. Sorry if that was gross!

Finally I poured premeasured pumpkin puree into plastic containers and plastic Ziploc bags. All of the bags are 1 cup and the plastic containers (except 2) are 2 cups. I ended up with 18 1/2 cups of pureed pumpkin and still have another one to do! Yeah I'm getting out those pumpkin recipes.