In late autumn, after all the people have baked their pumpkin pies and made their pumpkin breads, the grocery stores sell their overstocks of canned pumpkin at very reduced prices. Sometimes people will begin to donate a lot of it, and sometimes it is in the church budget to go to the store yourself and buy up a bunch of it. I have seen the prices fluctuate between over two dollars a can during high-demand times, to a quarter just a few days later, after the holiday rush is over with. Since pumpkin is high in vitamin A, it is a very good buy for its nutritional benefit alone, even though it is a major ingredient in many tasty dishes.
Canned pumpkin isn't necessarily an actual orange pumpkin. There can be any sort of squash in that can, from actual pumpkins to butternut, acorn or other orange, solid-type squash. There is no hard and fast definition of what "pumpkin" actually is, so the canners can likewise. For this reason, before you put the canned pumpkin into your particular dish, you should give it a taste, to see if it's the sort that wants to be in a sweet or savory dish. In this case, the pumpkin will just have to tell you itself.
SWEET DISHES
Most people only understand pumpkin as a sweet side dish. For them, the idea that a pumpkin can be savory is unthinkable....if you have more of these people than the adventuresome types, don't make a big deal out of putting pumpkin into savory dishes. Just add it, and when they ask what was in it, tell them. Then they might become a bit more trusting of where you might take them, culinarily.
Everyone knows about the Pumpkin Pie. While it is not my favorite, it is still the epitome of the holiday season, and for many people, Thanksgiving celebrations and Christmas are not the same without their pumpkin pie. This is a food preference thing, and should be respected. I make my pies without the crust, so basically I make a cooked pumpkin pudding. In my humble opinion, the crust is just a huge expenditure of calories from my calorie bank that I just don't think worth the trouble. For other people, this idea of "no crust" is an untenable sacrilege that they can't even fathom. People will let you know what side of that fence they are on. Holiday foods can bring out the beasts in some, for sure!
For a quick pumpkin bread spread, you can mix one cup of white or brown sugar and one teaspoon vanilla in a 16 ounce can of pumpkin. Cook on the stove top or in a microwaveable dish for about a minute or two, until the raw flavor of the pumpkin is gone. This is great on peanut butter sandwiches, or mix it in with cream cheese to top fruit bread, bagels, french toast or just regular bread. Bread topped with this cream cheese spread is especially good as bruschetta with pasta covered in tomato sauce. This spread is also good stirred into hot cereal.
Of course, pumpkin is good as a smoothie, with ice cream or milk, and whirred in the blender. If you use milk, make sure to use sugar or honey as a sweetner. You can add oatmeal or flax seed to this to make it super-good for you!
You can, of course, make lots of pumpkin bread with it. My husband makes the best pumpkin bread, using the recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Instead of the fat, though, he uses applesauce, and coats the pan and the top of the bread with cinnamon sugar before baking. Yes, this has kept us married!
My husband also makes a wonderful cream cheese "cake" using the Cool Whip method. Sometimes, he will mix in a can or so of pumpkin, to make an autumnal dessert, which is delicious.
You can also use the pumpkin in tamales, as a sweet or savory filling, or as part of the masa ingredients and then filling the tamale with chicken.
There are also many recipes for pumpkin fudge, but I have yet to have one of those recipes turn out correctly. It is an excellent addition to rice pudding, or even just a homemade pumpkin pudding.
It is also possible to use pumpkin in the place of applesauce and fat in baked goods. Experiment to see what works best for you.
You can use canned pumpkin in place of sweet potatoes, along with marshmallows, brown sugar, vanilla and syrup to make a substitute for the traditional sweet potato casserole.
SAVORY PUMPKIN USES
Pumpkin makes a very good soup, mixed with a little chicken soup base and milk. This is a great tomato soup substitute with grilled cheese sandwiches, or hotdogs and cheese rolled in tortillas and baked. It also makes an excellent soup base. First you get an assortment of vegetables-potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, corn, lima beans, radishes, whatever you have. Put in a pan with enough broth to cover, and cook until tender. Season; simply, add salt and pepper, or this plus garlic and onion, or that plus curry seasoning. Add meat and pumpkin, plus enough milk to bring it to a stewy stage, and serve. Or you can take it up another notch and add a bit of cocoa powder (unsweetened, about a tablespoon per pound of pumpkin) and make a mole flavored stew.
Make your usual bean soup, or refried beans, and add pumpkin at the end of the cooking time. It is also an excellent addition to homemade chicken noodle soup or chicken and dumplings.
A woman in a woman's magazine recipe contest recently won a sizable amount of cash using canned pumpkin as the base for her cheese sauce. You could also use it as the base for your cheese sauce for topping enchiladas. It is good for so many wonderful things!
You can use pumpkin, heated, seasoned, and buttered, as the "bean" layer in a seven layer dip. You can also just serve the pumpkin hot, with a bit of salt, pepper and butter, as a replacement for mashed potatoes. A bit of nutmeg adds to it, but I am personally not a fan of nutmeg.
Use half pumpkin and half your usual tomato sauce to top enchiladas or to make tamale sauce.
WHOLE PUMPKINS
Whole pumpkins are bit different things to manage. You must cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, put them face down on a baking sheet and bake them until the inner flesh is soft and can be scooped out. While you are baking the pumpkins, you can bake the seeds, season them and eat them like snacks. Or, you can take the baked seeds and whir them in a pesto sauce as a substitute for tree seeds--handy, if you have a people around you who are allergic to tree nuts. I would not suggest putting them into fruit breads as a nut substitute, because the moisture of the bread turns the seed shells into shards instead of something good to eat.
Take the whole chunks of the pumpkin, add onions, cooked breakfast sausages, and a touch of maple syrup. Bake at 400 degrees, covered, until everyone is equally caramelized in there. This is a delicious breakfast dish.
You can turn a whole pumpkin into an edible soup tureen. Bake a pumpkin that has had its upper lid removed and the seeds taken out. Place it on an attractive platter, and fill with soup or chili. This is a fun method for serving the pumpkin, but make sure you put it on the platter, since I've never met a pumpkin that could be trusted.
Pumpkin is also useful for decorating in the autumn-for some people, it is not even Halloween without a Jack O'Lantern on their front porch, or even painted faces on a pumpkin. The good part about the carved pumpkins is that the squirrels also get to enjoy the season, too, by eating the pumpkin as it sits on your porch!
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