Pumpkin Stew Recipe

It is fall, which means it is time for pumpkins.  Pumpkin everything.  Pie, bread, latte.  The guys at Good Mythical Morning explored the pumpkin craze themselves in “Will it Pumpkin Spice?”  Since I can’t go two miles in my city without passing a farmer’s market or produce stand with a phalanx of pumpkins on display (which are only getting cheaper) and considering this is the only time of year I will have the chance to cook with one, I decided to think up a pumpkin based recipe.  A pumpkin stew.

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I took a Rachael Ray Vegetable Stew recipe from the food network website and modified it to include some more fall harvest flavors.  When finding recipes online it is very important to look at the comments.  Recipe comment sections may actually be the most useful of all comment sections on the internet.  I’ve been burned by a few recipes because I didn’t read on to  find out that what I was making needed more egg, flour or other ingredients.  What I learned was that people don’t seem to enjoy a stew without meat, so I added pork which blends well with pumpkin.  It can easily be taken out, though.

The best part of this recipe is that you can infuse the stew further by allowing it to bake inside a pumpkin if you want.  This will earn you points for presentation but you are on your own on how to get a stew-filled pumpkin from point A to B.  Maybe staple the top and color it to look like Frankenstein’s monster?  Around Thanksgiving, if you feel like making turkey stock from your bird, you can use that instead of vegetable stock.

Note: Be sure to use a fresh, unopened pumpkin.

PUMPKIN STEW

Start to finish: 1 hour (30 minutes active) / 2 hours (40 minutes active) if baking

Servings: 6

Cut open the top of the pumpkin and clean/scrape the inside.  Reserve seeds if you wish to bake them.  Remove 3 cups of pumpkin then remove skin and chop it up.  This can come from the bottom of the lid or the inner rim, just be sure the lid still fits if you plan on baking.  Preheat oven to 300° if baking.

In an oiled pan, cook pork sirloin over medium heat until done.  During cooking, dust each side with thyme once.  In a separate soup pot add olive oil and turn heat to medium.  Add onions, garlic, and bay leaf.  Prepare the rest of the ingredients and drop them in as you go, in this order: carrots, potatoes, pumpkin then apples.  Finally chop then add the pork sirloin.

Cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Uncover and add tomatoes and stock.  Stir together then cook another 5 minutes.  Remove from heat then stir in basil.

The stew is ready but if you want to further bake it in the pumpkin, read on.  This is also a chance to bake the seeds if you want.

Trim the stem and coat the pumpkin’s skin with olive oil.  Place the pumpkin inside a baking pan.  Spoon stew from soup pot into the pumpkin.  Replace the lid and bake for 30 minutes to 1 hour.  Keep a close eye on the pumpkin to make sure it doesn’t become too soft or burn.  You can serve the stew directly from the pumpkin.

Feel free to leave a comment to share your experiences or tell us what you did to make this recipe your own.

(Base vegetable stew recipe from foodnetwork.com)