To be honest, I don’t know that I will do this again. Mainly because my kids didn’t like the soup. I like it. When I blended the soup the next day my kids liked it better. Cooking it in the shell worked, but had some difficulties. I will share the process and to help you have success in your creative dinner making.

How to Cook Pumpkin Soup in a Pumpkin Shell

Choose Your Pumpkin

Choose a medium to large size pumpkin. You want the pumpkin to be big enough to fit all your soup fillings but small enough to fit in your pot or pan that you are baking it in.

Clean The Pumpkin

Wash the outside of the pumpkin. For cleanliness sake, we wash the outside of the pumpkin because we are using it as our bowl for out food.

Cut and Gut The Inside of The Pumpkin

Cut the top of the pumpkin off. Don’t cut to low or you will loose room for the soup. I cut the top off and the stem. I don’t want the stem catching fire in the oven and this also allows for a steam hole.

Saute Your Soup Ingredients

The recipe I used is a vegan veggie soup with jalapeno and coconut milk. The flavor was good but the texture did fit very well. It was too brothy and not creamy enough… I should have blended the bean with the vegetable broth to create a thicker, creamy texture. What every recipe you do try with your pumpkin shell make sure you saute and cook everything before putting it in the pumpkin. This will shorten the time you have it in the oven and assure everything got cook through. Especially if you are using meat.

Add Ingredients to The Pumpkin Shell

Pour you soup ingredients into your pumpkin shell. Broth, veggies, meat, beans. Leave any milks or dairy out until the end when its done baking.

Baking the Pumpkin Soup

Bake the pumpkin on the lowest rack in your oven at 375 degrees for 2 hours or until the shell is soften and the pumpkin is fully cooked. It may take longer depending on the size of the pumpkin. I did find out that at 375 my pumpkin skin did get a little brown so if you really want to avoid this maybe try 350 degrees for a longer time.

Scrape the Pumpkin And Serve

One the pumpkin is done baking, take a fork and scrape the sides of the soup from the inside getting the ‘meat’ of the pumpkin incorporated into the soup. Pour in your coconut milk or other dairy products your recipe might use. Serve your pumpkin soup from the shell and enjoy this fun meal!

Is Cooking Pumpkin Soup in the Shell Worth it?

Pros

There was too great benefits of serving the pumpkin soup straight our the shell. Number one was the appearance. It gets 5 starts for aesthetics. Secondly the pumpkin flavor in the broth was amazing. It wasn’t overpowering but it was defiantly there. It was a wonderful flavor but I do thing I could get that flavor with pumpkin chunks in a normal pot all the same.

Cons

It took a long time. Instead of just thought things into a pot and calling it soup this took a lot more prep work. Cleaning the pumpkin, with all the insides and seeds, took a good amount of work that in the end didn’t seem pay off as much as I wished it did. My kids loved making the soup with me but then wouldn’t eat it and that never feels good.

The texture with this recipe just did not work our quite right. The next day I blended the left over before heating it up for lunch and my kids ate some of it but not a lot. (I think it was may have been a little spicy for them).

Conclusion

It was very pretty and fun to do. More work for sure and kinda worth it. If ever I do this again it will be a different recipe. Something that my kids will enjoy, then maybe it will all be worth it for me.

How To Cook A pumpkin In the Shell

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Active Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

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Materials

• 1 Pumpkin
• Large pot or deep pan
• Recipe and Ingredients

Instructions

1. Wash the outside of your pumpkin
2. Cut the top of the pumpkin off and clean out the inside from all the guts and seeds.
3. Saute you soup ingredients, then add them into your pumpkin shell along with your broth.
4. Bake the pumpkin for 2 hours at 375 degrees on the bottom rack of the oven.
5. Once the pumpkin is cooked take a fork and scrape the insides of the pumpkin without puncturing it.
6. Serve straight from the pumpkin and enjoy!

Vegan Pumpkin Spicy Soup With Coconut Cream

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 Pumpkin Whole, or 3 cups cubed pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cups cooked navy beans or 1, 15 oz can
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 onion
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 1 bell peppers
• 1 jalapeno (seeds optional)
• 1 banana pepper
• 1 cup chopped spinach or kale
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup coconut milk

Instructions

In A Whole Pumpkin Shell

1. Saute onions, bell peppers, jalapeno, banana peppers, garlic, spinach, mushrooms with the thyme, cinnamon and salt.
2. Pour into your cleaned out pumpkin shell. Also add the broth and navy beans save the coconut milk for later. (For a thicker, creamier broth, blend the broth and beans together before adding the soup)
3. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 2 hours.
4. Once the pumpkin is cooked take a fork and scrape the walls of the pumpkin without puncturing it.
5. Pour in the coconut milk. Serve and enjoy!

In A Pot On The Stove

1. In a pot saute onions, bell peppers, jalapeno, banana peppers, garlic, spinach, mushrooms with the thyme, cinnamon and salt and the cubed pumpkin a
2. Pour in the broth and navy beans save the coconut milk for later. (For a thicker, creamier broth, blend the broth and beans together before adding the soup)
3. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for 1 hour.
4. Once the pumpkin cubes are soft turn off the heat and pour in the coconut milk.
5. Serve and enjoy!

The post Can You Cook Pumpkin Soup In The Shell? appeared first on Embracing The Home.

Ingredients for Coconut Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Puree

You can use canned pumpkin or fresh pumpkin for this pie. I like to cook a pumpkin or two at the beginning of the fall season and freeze my pumpkin puree for all my pumpkin recipes throughout the festive months. If you are using a whole pumpkin check out my post on how to make pumpkin puree.

Coconut Milk

I use Thai Kitchen canned unsweetened coconut milk. Not the cream, not the sweetened milk just the regular unsweetened milk. The coconut milk is the only ingredient in the filling to give us a coconut flavor. If you want the coconut flavor to be stronger I suggest putting 1/2 a cup of coconut flakes in your pie crust. This will give you the coconut flavor throughout the whole pie.

Sugar

Sugar is our sweetener, you can substitute with a 1:1 ratio of Monk Fruit Sweetener. I have never tired to substitute honey or maple syrup for this pumpkin pie recipe but I believe it could be done. If you do try consider reducing the milk by 1/4 of a cup to make up for the added moisture.

I like to use organic cane sugar from Azure Standard. If you’ve never heard from azure standard before you should check our my Azure Standard Review to learn more.

Eggs

Eggs are a binding agent in baking as well as adding a creamy texture from the rich egg yoke.

Spices

Our spices include cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger. These spices add so much flavor and you can easily adjust the amounts and create a whole new flavor. If you favor one flavor over the other you can experiment by adding a extra 1/4 teaspoon to the spice you want to stand out. Reduce another spice you want to be more subtle then the others.

I also really like freshly ground nutmeg. This is optional but if you have never tried grating your own nutmeg from whole cloves you are missing out. I love the taste of nutmeg and fresh nutmeg does not disappoint

Salt

Enhance the flavor with good salt like Redmond Real Salt. If you are looking for a unrefined natural salt with multiple minerals and electrolytes harvested in the United States of America, then look no further. Redmond Real Salt is full of flavor and nutrients and harvested out of the ancient seabed deep beneath Central Utah.

Cornstarch/Flour

We don’t need much but just a little flour or cornstarch mixed in to our pie batter thickens our pie just enough to keep hold our pie together, especially when we cut into it.

How To Make Coconut Pumpkin Pie

Make a Pie Crust

With whatever pie crust you choose add 1/2 a cup of coconut flakes in the same time you add the flour. This will give our pie a more rounded coconut flavor.

Mix Wet Ingredients Together

In a bowl mix together the pumpkin, eggs, and coconut milk till smooth

Add Dry Ingredients

Then add the sugar, spices and cornstarch or flour. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Pour Into Prepared Pie Crust

In a 9 inch pie pan prepare you crust and then pour you coconut pumpkin filling into your unbaked prepared pie crust.

Bake

Bake at 400 degree for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 350 for 35 minutes. I recommend placing a crust shield on at the same time you reduce the heat. The shield will protect the edge of your crust from burning while the center of the pie continues to cook.

Let Cool and Serve

Take the pie out of the oven when the middle no longer jiggles when the pie is moved. That is how you will know it is cooked all the way through. Let the pie cool for at least 1 hour, I’d personally give it 3 hours before cutting into it. Serve with homemade whipped cream or a fresh glass of eggnog and enjoy!

Coconut Pumpkin Pie

Yield: 1, 9 inch pie

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Additional Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 55 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups Pumpkin Puree
• 3/4 Cup Coconut Milk
• 2 Eggs
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/2 Teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 Teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 Salt
• 2 Tablespoon Cornstarch or Flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes for pie crust

Instructions

1. Make your pie crust with 1/2 cup coconut flakes added in with the flour.
2. In a bowl mix together the pumpkin puree, eggs and coconut milk till smooth.
3. Add in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt and cornstarch or flour to your pumpkin mixture and combined thoroughly.
4. Roll your crust out and place it in your 9 inch pie pan. Pour your pumpkin filling into your prepared pie pan.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 350 and bake for 35 minutes. Use a pie crust shield half way into baking to keep the crust from burning.
6. Take out of the oven when the center of the pie is not longer jiggly. The pie filling may also start to crack and that is a sign that it is done. Let cool for at least 1 hour, 3 hours is best.
7. Serve with some fresh homemade whipped cream or a nice cup of eggnog and enjoy!

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The post Easy Coconut Pumpkin Pie Recipe appeared first on Embracing The Home.