18,000 tonnes of edible pumpkin are thrown away every Halloween in the UK; that’s the equivalent of 1,500 double decker buses, according to the Independent.
Time to join the tweetathon using #pumpkinrescue hashtag.
The Ecologist reports on the #pumpkinrescue manifesto.
Here are a few points from the manifesto.
- All supermarkets to make publicly available the amount of food waste they create and detail what happens to it.
- All supermarkets to ensure safe and healthy surplus food is redistributed to those on low incomes.
- Government to increase their investment in the Love Food Hate Waste campaign.
I am pleased with my organic pumpkin’s potential as a lantern. It has a flat bottom so won’t roll around and it is fresh with a long stem making it easier to lift off the lid.
I am even more pleased with my pumpkin’s nutritional qualities: gentle, soluble fibre, immune-boosting vitamins and minerals, as well as carbohydrates, providing sustainable, slow-release (yet low-fat) energy.
(Above para from a book I co-wrote, Make More of Squashes).
I want to honour the pumpkin as food.
The easiest way to prepare a pumpkin is to bake it. That way you only need to slice it in two, and scoop out the innards (put the inner ligaments in the compost bin and and bake the seeds for 5 minutes in a hot oven with soya sauce, or fry them).
Here’s a great blog on how to bake a pumpkin in ten steps, including cutting tips.
If you are making a lantern, then there is no escape: you have to make the effort of scooping out the flesh. So you might as well make the most of your hard work and not discard the goodness.
Use the pumpkin flesh in a soup with coconut milk/stock/water, and spices, or cubed in a stew.
What is your favourite pumpkin recipe?
Pan-fried pumpkin flesh atop a bed of curried coconut lentils
Real Food Lover 