The benefits of kabocha squash
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What pumpkin does
What this vegetable does
It is held to replenish qi and to strengthen the way the Spleen and Stomach work.
How to eat it
Simmered or made into soup, the sweetness comes forward and it warms the body more.
A yakuzen note
It is looked to for depleted qi, and for easing tiredness and poor digestion.
This vegetable, driedDried pumpkin ->
Pumpkin is sweet and warm, held to replenish the Spleen and Stomach. It suits times when poor digestion or tiredness is on your mind, and simmered or made into soup it replenishes qi while it warms the body. As an ingredient that helps the gut work, it is a vegetable to bring in at the turn of the seasons and in the cold months.
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When pumpkin is in season, its types, and how to choose it
If you want to enjoy what pumpkin does, it helps to know its season, its types and how to choose it. It is the vegetable that stands for autumn and winter, loved for its floury sweetness and vivid orange flesh.
In season from autumn to winter, sweeter for being left to ripen
Pumpkin is harvested from summer into early autumn, but it carries more sweetness after it has been left a while to ripen than it does straight from the field, so the season for eating it runs from autumn into winter. There is a long-standing custom of eating pumpkin at the winter solstice to see the winter out in good health, and it has long been a vegetable of the cold months. Hokkaido is the main growing area, with Kagoshima and Nagasaki among the others, and with imports added it is available all year. Whole, it keeps a long time somewhere cool and dark with air moving, which makes it a useful standby through the winter.
Western pumpkin, Japanese pumpkin and pepo squash
Pumpkin divides broadly into three groups, differing in texture and flavour.
| kinds | What stands out |
|---|---|
| Western pumpkin | The mainstream today. Floury and strongly sweet, as in the chestnut pumpkin |
| Japanese pumpkin | A waxy texture and restrained sweetness. For simmered dishes and dishes steeped in stock, as in the black-skinned pumpkin |
| Pepo squash | Plenty of unusual ones, such as spaghetti squash and courgette |
There are distinctive Japanese pumpkins as well, gourd-shaped, such as the Kyoto vegetable Shishigatani pumpkin For a floury texture the Western pumpkin suits, and for a refined simmered dish where the pieces should hold, the Japanese pumpkin: you can choose by the dish.
How to choose it and how to cut it
When picking out a good pumpkin, these are the things to look for.
- A hard skin and real weight, with the cut stem dried to something like cork
- Cut pieces: deeply coloured flesh, and thick
- Plump, well-filled seeds, with the pith not dried out
A pumpkin has a hard skin and takes some force to cut. Heating it briefly in the microwave to soften it lets you cut it up safely. Take the seeds and pith out with a spoon first, then steady it with a flat side down before the knife goes in, and it will not wobble.
How to eat pumpkin
The floury sweetness of a pumpkin carries it from main dishes to soups to snacks. Here are the usual ways.
Simmered, as a potage and in tempura
Simmered sweet and savoury with sugar and soy sauce is the standard pumpkin dish. To keep the pieces from breaking up, round off the cut edges, lay them skin down and simmer them gently under a drop lid, and they hold their shape. Simmered soft, crushed and let down with milk or stock, it makes a smooth potage. Sliced thin, battered and fried as tempura, the sweetness and the toasted note come forward. Cooked skin and all, it finishes colourful and gains a note of texture.
In salads and sweets
Steamed or boiled, crushed and dressed with mayonnaise, it makes a faintly sweet pumpkin salad. Raisins and walnuts add texture. It is strongly sweet, which suits it to puddings, pies and cakes, and crushed flesh mixed into a batter is all it takes to add a gentle sweetness and colour. Used in a gratin or croquettes, it makes a dish that children find easy to eat. Dried pumpkin products are handy too, rehydrated for soups and simmered dishes, as in Dried pumpkin, which you rehydrate, in the cupboard helps when you want one more dish.
How to keep pumpkin
A whole pumpkin keeps for several weeks to a month somewhere cool and dark with air moving. Once cut, take out the seeds and pith with a spoon, since they spoil first, cover the cut face tightly with film, keep it in the vegetable drawer of the fridge and use it up soon. If you cannot finish it, boil it or heat it in the microwave and then freeze it in small portions, ready to go straight into simmered dishes and soups, or crushed for a salad. It can also be sliced thin and frozen raw.
Alongside this, one likewise held to replenish the Spleen, The benefits of Japanese yam and one floury and sweet, What sweet potato does as a guide when building a table for autumn and winter.
Growing sweeter from autumn into winter, pumpkin is a useful vegetable that works across simmered dishes, potage, tempura and sweets. Floury Western pumpkin and Japanese pumpkin for a refined simmered dish: use each type for the job and it shows its best. Follow the winter solstice custom too, and bring pumpkin to the table in the cold season.
