Three Ways To Use Pumpkin Puree During Thanksgiving And Throughout The Year
One of the great things about Thanksgiving is the food. Pumpkin is something that people enjoy throughout the year, but for many people, it is only in the fall they experience this great flavor. If your family and friends enjoy the flavor of pumpkin, you can prepare foods with this popular squash all year long. You only need to use canned pumpkin instead of homemade puree from a fresh pumpkin. The following are three ideas to introduce pumpkin to your family, they may want to have on a regular basis.
Pumpkin pancakes
You can use whatever recipe for pancakes that you normally use. Simply add about a third of a cup of pumpkin puree to every two cups of pancake batter you make. After cooking your pancakes, you can add pumpkin spice syrup as a topping. This syrup is a nice treat on top of regular pancakes as well. You can serve these pancakes for Thanksgiving breakfast.
Pumpkin smoothies
If you like smoothies, you may find them enjoyable with pumpkin. People seem to like pumpkin with bananas, so all you need to do is prepare a banana smoothie and add a couple tablespoons of pumpkin puree. You can also use a favorite strawberry-banana smoothie recipe, but you need to make sure you use plain yogurt, and don't substitute pumpkin for strawberries in the same amount. Only use about a fourth of pumpkin as a substitute for the strawberries. Also, you might want to use a pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon. You can experiment with the right amount for your taste.
Pumpkin cookies
There are a lot of recipes for making pumpkin cookies, but the fastest way to go about it is to use a box of cake mix. These cake mixes only require water and sometimes an egg. Simply add a can of pumpkin puree or the equivalent in homemade puree to the mix. You can use any mix flavor, but a spice cake mix seems to go best with pumpkin. Use a cookie sheet and make the cookies any size you want.
One important thing to keep in mind when you are preparing pumpkin dishes is when pumpkins are longer in season. At this time you must use canned pumpkin, but do not use pumpkin pie filling. Pie filling has pumpkin spice already mixed in. This includes cloves, allspice and cinnamon. This may not be ideal for some of the dishes mentioned above.
