You bought that beautiful little, orange pumpkin but now what?

First, not all pumpkins are created equal. Pie pumpkins are small and have a thinner rind. Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins are typically large with a thicker rind that gives them a longer shelf life. Now you can cook jack-o-lantern but they won’t have as good of flavor as a pie pumpkin.

Once you have figured out what type of pumpkin you have wash it. Then use a sharp knife to cut the pumpkin in half.

Next scoop all the seeds out. I like use an ice cream scoop to remove the seeds. The seeds can be roasted and eaten or composted.

Now the pumpkin is ready to cook. Put the cut side down in a baking dish and add water until there is a half inch in the bottom of the baking pan.

Bake in an oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until the pumpkin flesh is soft. When a fork can easily pierce the rind the pumpkin is done.

Let the pumpkin cool and then remove the pumpkin from the rind.

Now you have pumpkin purée. It can be used as is or it can be further puréed with an immersion blender.

Now the purée is ready to use or it can be frozen to use later. My purée was used to make pumpkin muffins.

My pumpkin made two cups of pumpkin purée.