Making Homemade Pumpkin Purée

The ease of grabbing a can of pumpkin purée is alluring, but unless it is organic it is unclear what chemicals are on the pumpkin and in general, there is always something satisfying about making things from scratch… even if in the middle of the task I question my life choices 🤣.

Of course, if you have grown your own pumpkin, buying canned is unnecessary, and as you cook most squash the same and I have never seen a can of acorn squash, learning how to cook a pumpkin or squash can come in handy.

For the Love of Pumpkins

I personally love pumpkin for smoothies, so I have some in my freezer all year. While bananas are great for smoothies, not every smoothie needs to be banana flavored. Pumpkin adds the consistency but doesn’t make the smoothie taste like pumpkin, which is great. Pumpkins and squash also have tons of nutrients!

I also will add some pumpkin or squash purée to meals that might not call for it. Sometimes I will add 4-8 ounces of it to a pasta sauce or in rice. This just adds nutrients to meals and is a great way to sneak in veggies for those kiddos that don’t like them. Honestly, it goes virtually undetected.

How to Cook a Pumpkin or Squash

First let me say that you can technically cook any pumpkin, though the smaller ones are usually easier to handle. Pie pumpkins or sugar pumpkins are usually what is used but if you have some bigger pumpkins and don’t want to waste them… go for it, just make sure you use a nice orange pumpkin!

• Preheat your oven to 400℉
• Wash your pumpkin, knock off the stem, and cut it in half, if you are using a bigger pumpkin, you can cut it into quarters. Take out the seeds and if you want to cook them check out my post about Baking Pumpkin Seeds for some ideas, otherwise, compost them or dispose of them. Just know that if you throw them outside… you could very possibly have a pumpkin plant growing is spring.
• Put your cut pumpkins (cut side down) in a cooking safe dish, and add about an inch of water.

• Bake the pumpkins for 45 minutes, maybe an hour if you have bigger pumpkins. Take the pan out of the oven and allow them to cool.
• Once they are cooled, scoop out the flesh of the pumpkin doing your best not to get any skin. I use spoon to do this and it is pretty easy!

• Next put the flesh into a food processor and blend for a minute… presto… you have fresh pumpkin to make pies and much more! 

Notes:

• You can also put the cut halves into the microwave for less time but if you are doing multiple pumpkins, it is easier to just put them all in the oven on a bigger cookie sheet.
• Pumpkin and squash purée can be frozen for later, and once thawed, it can be used as it normally would. To freeze it, I use containers by Souper Cubes, they are silicone but free of the toxic things you don’t want. They are very convenient for anyone that freezes leftovers or that meal preps. I LOVE the varying sizes, but the cup cubes are great for the pumpkin or squash purée. They are a smaller business and you can see them here!
• I have a Ninja Mega Kitchen System and honestly LOVE it. I use it as a food processor, blender, smoothie maker, and I can make dough in it. Since getting this thing, my family makes fruit smoothies every day and we really have put this Ninja and its attachments through the ringer… and it still works great. We try to buy American-made products when we can but a Waring Food Processor, which is made in the USA, runs at almost $800 and it doesn’t come with a blender or smoothie maker. I am sure it is worth it but at this point, it is out of my price range. 

What Can You Do with Pumpkin and Squash Purée?

I have already said that I use pumpkin in smoothies and add both to varying dishes that might not call for it, like to pasta sauce. A quick note there, you can simply mix it in but to help with blending you can blend the purée with the sauce and then add it to pasta. This can help for those that are extremely picky eaters. However, there are dishes that call for them.

Obviously, pumpkin pie comes to mind, but there are others. For instance, we use pumpkin in our Pumpkin Wonton Howlers recipe, which is a fantastic appetizer for Thanksgiving and Harry Potter inspired! We also use pumpkin for Pumpkin Juice, a Harry Potter inspired drink. Pumpkin Bourbon Cinnamon Rolls are the perfect breakfast on a cold day! And for those that love squash, we use squash purée for a Sweet and Spiced Acorn Squash Soup.

In all, there are many to use both pumpkin and squash… homemade dog food, which we have also done, and even homemade baby food… which is so much cheaper than buying it at the store. Truly, pumpkins and squash are overlooked gems!

Enjoy Pumpkin Season

So, making homemade pumpkin and squash purée, if for no other reason than what you can do with it all! Also, just know that grabbing a quality can of purée is fine too… in fact, I have been known to do so, but when I can… I love making my own and I hope this has helped you to do the same!

If you enjoyed this or have other ways you use your pumpkin or squash, I would love to hear about them! Comment below and share them or head over to Instagram or Facebook and tag me @bemandfam to share pics… I’d love to see them!

Don’t forget to pin this for later and if you like Pinterest, I am there too!

Happy baking!

BEM + Fam 🙂

URL has been copied successfully!

PS. This post has some affiliate links, read more about those here.

Print

Pureed Pumpkin

Keyword: holidays, pumpkin

Ingredients

• pumpkins
• water

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 400℉

2. Wash your pumpkin, knock off the stem, and cut it in half, if you are using a bigger pumpkin, you can cut it into quarters.

3. Put your cut pumpkins (cut side down) in a cooking safe dish, and add about an inch of water.

4. Bake the pumpkins for 45 minutes, maybe an hour if you have bigger pumpkins. Take the pan out of the oven and allow them to cool.

5. Once they are cooled, scoop out the flesh of the pumpkin doing your best not to get any skin. I use spoon to do this and it is pretty easy!

6. Next put the flesh into a food processor and blend for a minute… presto… you have fresh pumpkin to make pies and much more! 

Recipe Notes

• You can also put the cut halves into the microwave for less time but if you are doing multiple pumpkins, it is easier to just put them all in the oven on a bigger cookie sheet.
• Pumpkin and squash purée can be frozen for later, and once thawed, it can be used as it normally would.