Community Corner

Halloween Recipe: Pumpkin Stew

Pumpkins are good for more than just jack-o-lanterns this Halloween season.

Here's a warming Halloween recipe to try; just make sure you have a lot of free time.

The recipe calls for four hours of cooking time, plus prep. Definitely not something that will feed hungry kids when you're fresh in the door from work. 

Basically it's a beef stew that simmers inside of a pumpkin for a couple of hours, which allows the interior of the pumpkin flesh to get soft enough that it can be scooped in before serving. The recipe doesn't call for this, but some allspice might make the pumpkin stew taste a little more like other pumpkin products, such as pie or bread. On the other hand, this isn't meant to be a sweet-tasting recipe, so it's entirely a matter of choice.

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The good news is, pumpkin is pretty nutritious, even as far as vegetables go. According to Nutrition Facts, a cooked or boiled pumpkin has only 49 calories per cup, with no cholesterol, no saturated or trans fat and only 2 micrograms of sodium.

Ingredients for pumpkin stew are:

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  • 2 pounds beef stew meet, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 3 tablespoons canola or olive oil
  • 1 cup water
  • 3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 4 medium carrots, sliced
  • 1 large green pepper, cut into half-inch pieces (we used a red pepper)
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minched
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 3/4 cup dried apricots
  • 3/4 cup dried prunes
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 tablespoons beef bouillon granules
  • 1 can (14.5 ounce) diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 1 pumpkin, 10 to 12 pounds

Cooking directions:

Use a large pot. Brown the meat in the 2 tablespoons of oil. Add water, potatoes, carrots, pepper, garlic, onion, salt and pepper. Cover and summer for 2 hours.

Stir in dried apricots, prunes, buillon and tomatoes.

While the stew cooks, prep the pumpkin. Wash the outside. Cut a 6-inch circle around the stem. Remove the top and set aside. Remove the seeds and fibers.

Place the pumpkin in a shallow, sturdy banking pan. Spoon the stew into the pumpkin and replace the top.

Brush the outside of the pumpkin with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Bake at 325 degrees for 2 hours or until the pumpkin is tender. Gently transfer the pumpkin to a serving dish. Serve the stew from a pumpkin, scooping out a little pumpkin from the sides with each serving. Serve with crusty bread.

Confession: I have no idea what a tender pumpkin looks like. However, at around 90 minutes into cooking, it was slumped over to one side and some stew had fallen out into the bottom. After we were done eating and had transferred the rest of the stew into leftover containers, the bottom of the pumpkin and cooked clean through.

Maybe it was because we skipped the bottom when we brushed the pumpkin with oil, or maybe it just doesn't take a lot of time to cook a pumpkin tender. Still, if I were to recreate Pumpkin Birthday again before my birthday, I'd watch out for the first sign of the pumpkin tilting to one side.


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