Pumpkin and more pumpkin

You know you've got a bargain when you buy a pumpkin for 10p. That's what my husband managed to find the day after Halloween. I guess the supermarkets wanted rid of their stock now the festivities were all over.

I have to say we have had three meals out of it and there's still 400g of pumpkin in the freezer. The first meal was a curry for five. This was a new recipe, served with bean rice. Fiddly but worth it. Delicious. Next came soup. A simple one with just onion, garlic and stock. I twirled some soya cream into it for my portion. Yum. Finally, I found a recipe for Pumpkin Scones which used pureed pumpkin. First you steam 200g pumpkin, then whiz it in a food processor (or a hand held blender). The pumpkin gets mixed with an egg and zest of a orange. I didn't have an orange so I used the only thing close....a Clementine! This mixture is added to the flour, sugar, butter and spices. Another adaptation here. It didn't have enough plain flour, so I topped up with spelt flour. After baking, leave to cool and make some icing with icing sugar and the juice of the orange (in my case the Clementine!). What do they taste like? Divine!

Apart from the scones the rest are all vegan recipes. Even the meat eaters in the family enjoyed the curry and the scones are going down well! Since I've stopped trying to go vegan I find I eat more vegan! I rarely eat traditional cheese now, but I do still use butter and egg in cake baking (and eat the odd poached egg). I take soya milk with me to church for my tea after the service and eat vegan when out, if I can. If not, there is always a veggie option. At home I eat mainly vegan now. I love experimenting, and sometime I want to have a go at making vegan ice cream with tofu. Tofu is another versatile food, and I'm rather partial to it. I've also been trying soya chunks from Holland & Barrett. They work well in lots of recipes too.

I bought a few gourds for an autumn display and soon I will have to think of some new recipes!

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Scones