Vegetable
Pumpkin
CalabazaCarabassaCucurbita moschata
It's harvested in autumn and, whole, keeps for months without a fridge: it was the vegetable that lasted till February. In Spanish, «giving someone pumpkins» means turning them down.
When
Around: Sept–Feb · At its best: Oct–Dec
Around: Sept–Feb · At its best: Oct–Dec
Around: Mar–Aug · At its best: Apr–Jun
Around here
In Catalan markets you'll mostly see butternut squash and big pumpkins sold by the slice. Fig-leaf gourd, with stringy flesh, is made into cabell d'àngel («angel hair»), the sweet filling for ensaïmades, cocas and pastissets. In Valencia, pumpkin fritters (bunyols) are the sweet of the Fallas.
At the market
- Whole: heavy, with skin so hard your fingernail won't mark it.
- With its stalk dry and intact; without it, it spoils sooner.
- No soft bruises, cracks or mouldy spots.
- By the slice: deep-coloured, firm, moist flesh and plump seeds.
At home
- Whole, somewhere cool, dry and dark (not the fridge): one to several months depending on variety.
- Cut, seeds out and covered with cling film, in the fridge: 4-5 days.
- Peeled and diced, in a tub in the fridge: 2-3 days.
If you have too much
- Diced raw, it freezes without blanching, for soups and stews.
- Roasted and puréed, frozen in portions: for soup, cakes or pasta.
- Pumpkin jam with orange and cinnamon.
- The seeds, washed, dried and roasted with salt in the oven.
In the kitchen
- Pumpkin and leek soup, topped with toasted seeds.
- Roasted in wedges with the skin on, with oil, salt and rosemary or cumin.
- Raw, finely grated into a salad with orange.
- In a rice dish or risotto, stirred in to melt at the end.
- In a pulse stew or in escudella.
- Pumpkin fritters, Valencian-style.
What it brings
Per 100 g, raw.
- Energy
- 45 kcal
- Water
- 86% water
- Carbs
- 11.7 g
- Sugars
- 2.2 g
- Fibre
- 2 g
- Protein
- 1 g
Stands out for
- High in vitamin A532 µg · 67% of what you need in a day
- Source of vitamin C21 mg · 26% of what you need in a day
- Source of potassium352 mg · 18% of what you need in a day
Data from the USDA (FoodData Central). See the full table ↗ · How we decide what stands out
Goes with
- Sweet potatoSept–JanIt looks like a potato with ambitions, but in the oven it turns almost into a pudding: slow heat converts some of its starch into sugar.
- ChestnutOct–DecBefore potatoes, chestnuts were winter bread in many European mountains. Today they mostly mean smoke in the street and hot newspaper cones in your hands.
- LeekOct–MarAn onion that never forms a bulb and tastes milder. The white part comes from earthing it up as it grows: the higher the soil, the longer the white.