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How To Use Every Part Of A Pumpkin – No Food Waste

Pumpkin is great at Halloween for decorating & for kids to carve, but many pumpkins are wasted & not used to their full potential. Even if you are doing great, roasting the pumpkin or making soup or desserts, often the seeds, 'guts' & skin or rind gets binned. But these all can be used too & no need to contribute to the landfill.

HOW TO USE EVERY PART OF A PUMPKIN

No Food Waste

Bonus Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

Here is how to use the complete pumpkin or squash



Use The Pumpkin Flesh

Use The Pumpkin Seeds

Use The Pumpkin ‘Guts’

Use The Skin Of The Pumpkin


Photo of chopped chunks of pumpkin after de-seeding, on a chopping board.

How To Use The Pumpkin Flesh

Ok, so you can roast the pumpkin and use the flesh for blitzing into a pumpkin soup.

You can also just roast smaller pieces of raw pumpkin and eat as a healthier alternative to roast potatoes, with no need for salt or oils or fats. Taste really good!

Or, keep the roasted pumpkin and scrape off the cooked flesh to make your own roasted pumpkin puree. With pumpkin puree comes hundreds of recipes, from sweet breads, muffins & cakes, to pumpkin spiced latte and the very popular pumpkin pie. You can also make savoury dishes too, such as pumpkin risotto & pumpkin hummus. The list is endless. You can also safely freeze pumpkin puree to use at a later date.

You can check out some of my pumpkin & squash recipes on the Halloween/Autumn Recipes Page.


Overhead shot on white background, of 2 plates of roasted multi colouredsquash and punpkin pieces, with text 'pumpkin puree guide UK'.
Overhead shot of brown load on chopping board,with sloces cut, banana and Autumn decorations to the sides.
Close shot of single brown plate of one opened up chocolate pumpkin muffin with syrup served.
chocolate and pumpkin marbled bundt cake from above, on a cooling rack.

Extra close shot of a bowl of roasted seasonsed pumpkin seeds in shells, drinks and snacks in the background, and a female hand reaching in.

How To Use The Pumpkin Seeds

Most people will be aware that they can use the seeds of a pumpkin but rarely do. The seeds do get tangled in-between the pumpkin ‘guts’ and so you do need to separate them. But they are easily roasted to have as a snack.

You can roast with salt or other seasons and eat them with or without the shell. Pumpkin seeds are nutritious, and high in protein, omega oils and magnesium and contain anti-oxidants & B vitamins1. For more information on the possible health benefits of pumpkin seeds, check this website – Healthline.com

Recipe for roasting pumpkin seeds below:

Jump to Recipe

How To Use The Pumpkin ‘Guts’

Know as the ‘guts’ of the pumpkin, this is the stringy-like membranes that are between the seeds and the pumpkin flesh.

Often just scooped out and discarded, these too can be used for no waste.

These ‘guts’ can be used as a vegetable sock for any of your cooking.

Just use with other vegetables as if you were making a regular vegetable stock.


Overhead shot of a Extra close shot of a Jack-o-landern pumpkin, with one to the back.

How To Use The Skin Of The Pumpkin

If you are just carving your pumpkin, or even if you are roasting the pumpkin, you will still have the pumpkin skin or rind left over.

This, like the ‘guts’ is the most wasted part of the pumpkin, often left to rot

But you can also save yourself from wasting it, and actually add it to your food bin or compost heap.

It is entirely degradable and will turn to compost so absolutely no reason to just discard it with regular household waste.


Overhead shot of 2 plates of yellow and orange coloured chopped and roasted fancy squashes.

So to summarise, there is no reason to waste any part of a pumpkin or squash.

It is all usable in some way or other, and by making compost from it, it continues to give and help reduce food waste.

So next time you have a pumpkin or are carving one for Halloween, take a minute and remember to try and use all the parts this time.


As promised here is my recipe for making the roasted pumpkin seeds.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

HOW TO ROAST PUMPKIN SEEDS WITH 3 FLAVOURS

Close shot of a bowl of roasted seasoned pumpkin seeds in shells, drinks and snacks in the background, and a female hand reaching for wine glass.
Here's my quick and easy recipe to make use of your pumpkins this Fall/Autumn and reduce waste. Makes a tasty snack, that can be flvoured anyway you like, but I have 3 examples here for you to get started.
Caro @ Caroline’s Easy Baking Lessons
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Drying Time 12 hours
Total Time 12 hours 15 minutes
Serving Size 2 servings

Equipment

  • Tray for drying seeds
  • Clean Tea-towel or kitchen paper/paper towels
  • Baking tray/sheet
  • Baking/parchment paper
  • Cooling rack
  • Jar for the seeds

Ingredients

  • Pumpkin Seeds (& or squash seeds) Amount you have will depend on size of your pumpkins.
  • Salt
  • Smoked Paprika
  • Infused Oil (Spray) Or Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I used a Onecal Garlic infused spray oil but any can be used)
  • Garlic Pepper (This is a blend of dried Garlic, black pepper corns, red and green bell peppers, dried onion & garlic Oil, made by Swartz but you could make your own or a combination).

Instructions

Dry Out The Pumpkin Seeds

  • Separate the seeds from the pumpkin 'guts' and then rinse well before drying them out.
  • Place the seeds on top of a clean tea-towel or baking/parchment paper, placed on top of a tray. Separate them so they dry out easier. Note that using kitchen paper/paper towel, a few will have a tendency to stick to the paper once dried.
  • Leave to dry out near a radiator or somewhere warm, over-night. This long drying time is optional, but reduces baking time.
    4 photo collage of drying pumpkin seeds & seasoning before roasting, with text 'photo 1'.

Flavour The Pumpkin Seeds

  • Once the pumpkin seeds are completely dried out you can roast them. But first you can coat them with a seasoning of your choice or do a few different ones. For this batch of photos, I made 3 flavours – salt, garlic pepper and a smoked paprika version. To flavour them, simply coat in oil and then with your seasoning. Use more seasoning than you think you need, as some will not stay on the seeds.
  • For the smoked paprika ones, I sprayed with garlic infused cooking oil by OneCal first before coating them. I found it easy enough to just place the seeds on the baking/parchment paper on the baking tray, and season there. But you can also choose to season in a bowl if you like.

Roast The Pumpkin Seeds

  • Have your seeds spread apart on the baking tray/sheet lined with baking/parchment paper, and bake for about 10 minutes, at 190°c/170°c Fan Oven/375°f/Gas Mark 5. I baked for 7 minutes and then tested them, and turned the tray and baked a further 3 minutes till toasted and crunchy.
    Extra close photo of seasoned golden pumpkin seeds in white bowl.
  • Remove from the oven and place the baking tray/sheet on the cooling rack to cool down. Once cooled down, eat or store in a jar till ready to eat.

Notes

 
5 photo collage of scooping seeds from cut pumpkin. separating from the guts and drying out.
*The amount of seeds you will get from the pumpkin, will depend on the size of the pumpkin.  But for the recipe, I have provided details for 2 servings of 28g/1 oz, which you will get from an average sized Jack-o-lantern pumpkin.
Nutrional Information – I am not a qualified nutritionist & all values are approximate.  Values based on 1 serving, of 1oz.   Providing – 5.3g protein, 5.5g fat (mostly unsaturated), 15g carbohydrates of which 5g dietary fiber & 125 calories (source U.S. Department Of Agriculture).
Extra close shot of a bowl of roasted seasonsed pumpkin seeds in shells, drinks and snacks in the background, and a female hand reaching in.
*Amount of seasonings can be adjusted according to taste & also whether you consume the seed shell or not.
*Click to go to my Homemade Roasted Pumpkin Puree recipe, or go to Fall/Autumn Recipes for ideas how to use the puree.
Overhead photo of party table with alcohol bottles, glasses, some filled, poppers, dips and 3 bowls of seasoned pumpkin seeds.
 
 
Nutrition Facts
HOW TO ROAST PUMPKIN SEEDS WITH 3 FLAVOURS
Serving Size
 
1 portion
Amount per Serving
Calories
139
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
11
g
17
%
Saturated Fat
 
2
g
13
%
Polyunsaturated Fat
 
5
g
Monounsaturated Fat
 
4
g
Sodium
 
587
mg
26
%
Potassium
 
238
mg
7
%
Carbohydrates
 
6
g
2
%
Fiber
 
2
g
8
%
Protein
 
6
g
12
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: easy, beginner

Rating: 1 out of 5.

roasted seasoned pumpkin seeds on 3 small square black slate pieces on wooden board, on top of pale blue backdrop, with xmas bell decorations in red and white, drinks, wooden decoraion and green napkin.

Reference

1 Information taken from Healthline.com – https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/11-benefits-of-pumpkin-seeds

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Happy Baking & Learning!

Caro x


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