Last week, when we had a fun Pumpkin Day, I had some extra cooked pumpkin that I needed to freeze for later use.
Option One:
Big glob frozen in a Ziploc bag, with no knowledge whatsoever of the amount or possibility of using only a portion of it.
So I came up with Option Two (which contains an Amazon affiliate link):
I froze the cooked pumpkin in my handy-dandy ice cube trays. It worked so well for my yogurt-smoothie-kits, that I knew it would work well for this.
I put the cooked and mashed pumpkin in a plastic storage bag and then cut a small hole in one end, like a pastry bag. I squeezed it into the ice trays
When I started, I put one cup of pumpkin in the bag, and this made 10 cubes. Now, I can pull out the right measurement of pumpkin for a recipe, and don’t have to defrost the huge bag full. I made some more pumpkin muffins with last year’s frozen-pumpkin-glob, and since it was a little over 2 cups, and the recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin, I had to add “ish” to the end of each of my ingredient measurements. The new method will make it much easier to get just what I need.
Here are some recipes that I plan to make this fall which will work very well with the pumpkin cubes.
Pumpkin Pie Dip (great with apple slices)
And here’s the link to the pumpkin muffins that I made a second (bigger) batch of to freeze, since they were, ummmm, how should I say it . . . . FABULOUS!!!!! And so easy. I didn’t bother to read the first time that the wet and dry ingredients were supposed to be mixed separately, and since they turned out fine, I didn’t bother with it this time either.
But I will not be making pumpkin soup. I even did the unthinkable and poured out the pumpkin water from when I boiled the pumpkin. While the cheapskate in me cringed, the grown-up-version-of-the-little-girl-whose-mother-never-wasted-a-thing-and-made-many-free-spirited-versions-of-pumpkin-soup might have smiled a little in satisfaction.
Feel free to make pumpkin soup. Just be ready, in thirty-something years, for your daughter to . . . not.
I’m linking this up over at Life As Mom for her Freezer Cooking Days.
I’m also sharing this over at Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.
I used this technique when I made baby food for my son last year. 🙂 I'm cooking/pureeing my pumpkins tonight!
I made pumpkin soup for my family about 3 years ago for supper before we went trick or treating.
Oh, the weeping and wailing. And that was just me. Just kidding, but we are never having pumpkin soup again – we'll take our pumpkin in pies and cakes and lattes, please. 😉
I love frozen pumpkin! That dip looks yummy. I might try it. Haha who am I kidding, I think all dips look yummy.
I (almost?) NEVER mix wet and dry separately. If I carefully put the dry on the wet and mix it a little before stirring in, I never have problems and save washing a bowl. 🙂 I recently made a new friend who has the same habit and she is a FABULOUS baker/cook.
have you seen the other pumpkin muffina recipe that been floating around?? I don't so WW, but supposedly they're 1 WW point for 1 muffin. I like that they're super easy. You ready? 1 box cake mix (I used spice) for 1 can pumpkin. Bake 350 for 18 minutes… I made mini muffins so I didn't even think twice about eating like 3 for breakfast this morning 🙂
so, is a 15 oz can of pumpkin actually 1 1/2 cups? i figured it for 2 cups, since that would be 16 oz.
now, are you ready for my pumpkin tips?
cut it into large chunks and pile it into your biggest roasting pan. add a couple of cups of water to the pan to keep it from drying out. cover it tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour till it is fork-tender. let it cool and scrape away from the peel with a large spoon. it’s pretty much mush at this point. you could use a chopper or food processor to make it a little smoother.
then i fill a wide mouth pint jar all the way to the top (2 cups) and put a sandwich size ziploc bag over the jar. turn the whole thing upside down and it dumps into the bag without making a mess all over the top of the bag. i think i have about 20 bags like this in my freezer right now from the 3 large pumpkins that decorated my front porch till t’giving. made pumpkin pies for christmas with a couple of them……rave reviews!!!!
Hi, I will preface this with saying I am not a good cook. Re pumpkin soup being one of the few things I have made. My preference is for at least half of it to be potato. Put chopped up potato and pumpkin in a pot. Just cover with water. Simmer until soft, then mash or use a hand held blender. Add spices to suit. Just an option.
I froze pumpkin diced and raw, worked for me.