5 Easy Pumpkin Recipes for a Halloween Treat!

Let’s start with a comforting bowl of hearty soup to warm the soul.

Ingredients:

How to make:

1. Once you have scooped out the insides of your pumpkin, preheat the over to 200ºC/180ºC fan/ gas 6. While your oven is heating, remove the seeds from your pumpkin and then tip the deseeded insides onto a foil-lined baking tray.
2. Once on the tray, evenly pour half of the vegetable oil over the pumpkin and sprinkle over the all-spice, mix well to ensure there is even coverage. Once seasoned, roast till golden and soft (around 30 minutes).
3. While that is in the oven, pour the remaining oil into a large saucepan and fry the chopped onion until translucent but not golden. Then add in your garlic and ginger and continue to cook for an additional minute. From then on, add your stock. Once your stock is added and is well combined, add your roasted pumpkin to the pan and bring to a simmer.
4. Once at a simmer, remove from the heat and blend your mixture. Once smooth, put back into the pan and bring back to a simmer, add more stock if you want to adjust consistency and season with salt and pepper to taste and add in your lime juice.
5. Once this is done, ladle into bowls, garnish with a pinch of chilli flakes and fresh Coriander. Serve hot with a dash of vegan cream.

A lot of us associate pumpkin with sweet treats, but why not incorporate it into a savoury and tasty dinner?

Ingredients:

How to make:

1. Bring 2 pots of generously salted water to a boil and then add your pasta to one pot and cook till al dente. Once cooked, drain the pasta while saving a cup of the pasta water for later.
2. While the pasta is cooking, add your pumpkin to the other pot and cook for 10-15 minutes or until tender (you can tell by poking with a fork). Put to the side for later.
3. While both the pasta and pumpkin are cooking, In a large pan, lightly fry off the diced onion till translucent but not brown, then add in the garlic and fry off till well combined and fragrant.
4. At this point, you should have your pasta, pumpkin and onion/garlic mix cooked. For the next step, add your cooked pumpkin, onion/garlic mix, chilli powder, and red pepper flakes with around 50ml of your milk and blitz till smooth. You may need to slowly add the milk to thicken the mixture, get the mixture thick enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon.
5. Once the mixture is at the correct consistency, transfer the mixture to a large frying pan (you can use the same one that you used to cook the onions and garlic). At this point, add your tomato puree and mascarpone (or vegan cream cheese) and cook on low heat till simmering.
6. Once simmering, simply add your cooked pasta to the mixture and combine well. Season with salt and pepper to taste if necessary. Use that saved pasta water to adjust consistency if necessary.
7. Serve topped with parmesan (or vegan cheese of choice) and enjoy!

Now… we all love a pumpkin spiced latte and over the years, it has taken the world by storm, but what about a pumpkin spiced smoothie?

Ingredients:

How to make:

1. Now… this is the longest part, but once you have done this, you can reuse it for a week in the refrigerator or 4 months if frozen. There are 2 ways to make pumpkin puree, you can choose which suits you best. Both methods require you to deseed the pumpkin guts that you have scooped out of your future masterpiece. Once you have done that, you can either:
   
   
   • Place on a foil-lined baking tray and roast for around 30 minutes at 200ºc till tender. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. Once this is done, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool. Once cool enough to handle, place in a blender/food processor and blitz till smooth, if too watery, place the puree in a cloth and squeeze out any excess liquid.
   • Put the pumpkin into a saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook for around 10 minutes until tender. Once cooked, drain well and then place the pumpkin back in the saucepan and heat to remove residual moisture. Once this is done, add to a food processor and blitz till smooth. Once again, if overly watery, place the puree in a clean cloth and squeeze out any excess liquid.
2. Once you have your pumpkin puree ready, place all of your ingredients into a blender and blend on high till smooth! You may need to scrape down the sides occasionally. Depending on the consistency of your mixture, please add milk of choice or water to adjust.
3. Serve in a cup of choice and enjoy! If you want to try something a little different, adding things like oats, nuts or nut butter would be a great twist to spice things up!

Who doesn’t like a soft and chewy cookie??? These oatmeal cookies are full of great ingredients and taste great!

Ingredients:

How to make:

1. Combine your flour, oats, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon nutmeg and salt together in a bowl and mix well.
2. In another bowl mix both sugars (brown and granulated) and the coconut oil until well combined. Once well combined, add in your pumpkin puree (the same one that is used for the smoothie recipe!) and vanilla extract until fully combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients from step 1 into the mixture and once all combined, keep mixing till there is a dough consistency. Once combined, place in the fridge to cool for half an hour.
3. While it is cooling, preheat your oven to 200ºC. Line two baking trays with grease-proof paper and remove your dough from the fridge. From here form 1.5 tbsp sized balls (roughly 24 of them) and place them evenly spaced out on your baking tray, allowing space for expansion. Softly flatten the top of each cooking with your hand.
4. Allow your cookies to bake for 10 minutes (or until lightly browned on the bottom) and remove from the oven. Once removed, allow to cool till safe to touch (1-3 minutes) and then transfer to a cooling rack.
5. To make the icing to go on top, simply mix your icing sugar and milk of choice until smooth. Once this is done, put your cookies onto some greaseproof paper and lightly drizzle your icing top. Either do this by dipping your fork into the icing, or simply use a spoon. Let the glaze dry for around half an hour. Once this is done, they’re ready to eat! Eat within 3 days or freeze and reheat in the oven for up to 3 months!

What kind of pumpkin recipe list would this be if we didn’t include a pumpkin pie? Instead of the regular ones, we have created a recipe for some super easy mini pumpkin pies.

Ingredients:

How to make:

1. Preheat your oven to 200ºC, while this is happening, put all of your ingredients (excluding the whipped cream and pie crust) into a blender and blend till smooth.
2. Roll out your crust (of homemade) or layout if store-bought. Then cut out 4” circles from your dough. Lightly oil the sides of your cupcake tin to ensure that your pies are easily removed. Once you have used all of your dough, gently press them into the cupcake tin.
3. Once all of your pastry is in the tin, pour your filling into each crust so that it is filled. Bake the pies for around 25 minutes (this will differ slightly for each oven). You will see the crust start to crack and turn brown, once this happens you know it is ready. Remove from the oven and allow to cool until you can handle each pie (roughly 5 minutes) once it is cool, place on a cooling rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes!
4. Once cool, pipe on your whipped cream to finish on top and a Ligh dusting of cinnamon. They’re now ready to enjoy!

We at WeightWorld always want to help you live better. Instead of wasting all of that excess pumpkin this Halloween, why not try one of these tasty recipes! We promise you won’t regret it!