Welcome autumn and hello crocktober! It’s the season of simmering soups, roasts, and more in your slow cooker or on the stovetop. While we’ve shared some of my favorite soup recipes here before, we haven’t shared how to make easy homemade pumpkin puree from your own homegrown pumpkins (or leftover ones from all your fall decorating).
One of the reasons we hadn’t grown much pumpkin before (besides how much space the vines take up!) is what I was going to do with all of them. I’m not a huge pumpkin or winter squash as the primary ingredient or flavor in a recipe. For example, not a pumpkin pie fan…but I certainly do love it mixed into baked goods!
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However, pumpkin puree always sounded too involved. Having to roast the pumpkin for an hour in an oven requires being present at home. Working full-time outside of the house means I don’t often have time to wait around on a pumpkin to roast. That valuable time is spent on preparing from-scratch meals.
Then I learned a secret. It works just as well in the slow cooker! Being able to toss it into the crockpot and then just walk away or drive off to work. We’ve tested out this method a few times now and it has worked beautifully. We even grew more pumpkins this year to freeze some extra puree!
Easy Homemade Pumpkin Puree
- Wash the outside of the pumpkin. As the skin will be in the slow cooker too, you’ll want to make sure it is dirt-free.
- Cut off the stem, slice in half, and scoop out the seeds. (You can save them to roast later or feed them to eager backyard chickens)
- Cut pumpkin into slivers or quarters depending on size. Whatever shape helps it fit into your slow cooker.
- Cook on high for 2-3 hours or low for 4-6 hours. You want the flesh of the pumpkin to be soft and tender and easily pull away from the skin.
- After it has cooked, allow it to cool a little to be able to handle it. Then scoop the flesh off the skins and toss the skins into the compost heap.
- Next up is pureeing. There are several options depending on what appliances you may have. We put the flesh right back in the already dirty crockpot and blitz it with an immersion blender. You can also transfer to a food processor or blender to blend to your desired consistency.
- It can be stored in the fridge for about a week or up to 6 months in the freezer. We like to freeze it in pre-measured quantities for our favorite pumpkin recipes. This makes thawing and using a snap!
Hope this recipe for easy homemade pumpkin puree inspires you to make all sorts of delicious seasonal goodies from pumpkin pies, to muffins, breads, and more. If you’re interested in another pumpkin recipe, check out our favorite pumpkin minestrone soup.
