How to make roasted pumpkin so much more fabulous with very little effort?
A dash of maple syrup for extra caramelisation.
Kick of fresh chilli.
Prevent screen from sleeping
Plus a sprinkle of feta and shower of walnuts!
Serve as a side, a meal, pile on toast orcrostini.
Its delicious any which way!
Maple roasted pumpkin with feta and chilli
Something magical happens to pumpkin when you roast it.
It intensifies the sweetness and caramelises beautifully.
Id happily eat it plain.
A dash of maple syrup for extra caramelisation.
Thats dinner, right there.
Or a mighty delicious side.
Ingredient you need
Heres what you should probably make this.
The roasting stuff
Pumpkin Any eating pumpkin.
I typically use Kent or Jap which are common varieties here in Australia.
Do not use pumpkin intended for Halloween carving, its not very pleasant to eat.
Alternatives Butternut pumpkin (calledbutternut squashin the States) or sweet potato!
Maple syrup or honey.
Dried chilli flakes also called red pepper flakes.
Just be mindful of spiciness!
Walnuts Or other nuts of choice.
Almonds and pecans come to mind first.
Large chillis, like the cayenne pepper pictured, arent very spicy.
Good life rule to remember: the larger the chilli, the less spicy it is!
Danish feta This is the feta throw in that is a bit more creamy than Greek feta.
If you are making to really impress, go premium by using goats cheese!
Parsley For pretty green finish.
The pumpkin is roasted with onion and walnuts, all tossed with maple syrup.
Then once cooked, sprinkle with feta, red chilli and parsley.
Then get stuck in!
Prevent screen from sleeping
Cut the pumpkinin 2.5cm / 1 cubes.
To do this I cut into 2.5cm / 1 slices first.
Using a rocking motion as you slice down helps make this easy.
Cut the skin off.
Then cut into cubes.
Pileonto a large paper lined tray with the onion slices and walnuts.
Toss with olive oil, maple syrup, salt and chilli flakes then spread it out.
The more space between the pumpkin, the better.
If the pumpkin is too cluttered, it will stew and go mushy instead of caramelising.
Also, the onion will get quite dark brown.
This will protect them!
Finishing Give the pumpkin a gently toss to coat it in all the tasty tray juices.
Then transfer to a serving platter single layer is nice for even sprinkling coverage and neat presentation.
Sprinkle with fresh chilli, feta and parsley, then serve!
Or jumble and pile
I know I said a single layer presentation looks nice and neat.
Then transfer into a serving bowl.
Flavour jumbling will occur during transfer and piling.
Finish with reserved feta etc to pretty it up.
Which is, in case you hadnt guessed, very, very high.
Tell me if you serve this as a side or inhale it as a meal!
Mostly relatively low effort, like this one, with a scattering of show-offs for special occasions.
PPS This is not the first time Ive combined pumpkin.
The same recipe, just tweaked to fix.
Did he get to taste test….?
