Pumpkin is a very useful vegetable that containsin itself set of vitamins and microcells. It can be eaten raw and processed, served as a garnish for meat, used for making desserts and other recipes. Moreover, the pumpkin is a low-calorie product, why it is often included in diets.
By the way, about whether a vegetable is a fruit or a berry, there are differences of opinion among scientists. As a rule, most people call a pumpkin a vegetable, but from a scientific point of view it's still a berry.
Season of pumpkin ripening - autumn. It is in autumn that the housewives begin to harvest pumpkin for the winter and prepare a lot of delicious dishes. One of them is pumpkin puree.
And how useful is this vegetable? Why is he so praised?The use of the product is undeniable. It's just a storehouse of vitamins and minerals. Just look at their kit: vitamins A, B, P, PP, E and C. Particularly is the content in it of vitamin T, which provides improved metabolism and prevents obesity.
The main minerals that the pumpkin contains:Potassium, magnesium, copper, zinc, calcium, fluorine, phosphorus and sulfur. Also, the pumpkin pulp is rich in iron, pectin substances and beta-carotene. It is worth noting that only 100 grams of pumpkin contain a daily rate of beta-carotene for a child.
For a product such as pumpkin puree, pumpkinit is necessary to choose ripe. Of course, in the supermarkets you can not try the vegetable, so you need to be able to choose it in appearance. Here are some tips on how to choose the right pumpkin for puree:
As a rule, for pumpkin puree vegetablepre-baked in the oven. Before baking, you must turn on the oven at a temperature of 180 to 250 degrees (depending on the size of the vegetable). Pumpkin puree is prepared very quickly. And after baking, the vegetable will still need to be cut into cubes, so it is not so important in what form it will be baked.
While the oven is heating, my vegetable and cut it in half. This is necessary in order to clear the middle of the seeds.
By the way, pumpkin seeds are also a very useful product, so we recommend rinsing them from the pulp and leaving to dry.
The pumpkin, freed from seeds, does not need to be peeled. You can send in the oven in half cut, or you can cut each half into 3-4 parts.
Spread the baking tray with foil or parchmentpaper and place on it a pumpkin. After you can send to the oven for an hour and a half. From time to time, check that the pumpkin is ready with a fork. When the product is very soft, you can remove it from the oven. Give the pumpkin time to cool down, then remove from its parts the peel and grind it into medium-sized cubes.
When the baked pumpkin has cooled down and is completely readyfor further processing, the case remains small. Now you can cook pumpkin puree. The recipe is very simple. For mashed potatoes we take a blender and lay a pumpkin. Add salt or pepper to taste. Then it is necessary to put the mashed potatoes in sealed containers (jars, for example) so that it is stored longer.
Pumpkin puree with cream is prepared the same way asand the usual product, the only difference is that additional cream is added to it. This is an excellent basis for pumpkin puree, the variations of which can be numerous.
