A few weeks ago, we were served the most delicious roasted sugar pumpkin at a true farm to table restaurant, Middle Fork Kitchen Bar, in Lexington, Kentucky. We were on Fall break and visited Keeneland race track, which was great old fashioned Southern fun. While I lost my money, I gained in cooking inspiration.
Middle Fork Kitchen Bar roasted the sugar pumpkin in their wood burning oven. The genius roast pumpkin recipe was finished off with ricotta cheese, molasses and pomegranate. It seriously wow’d us. I knew I was going to come home and roast a pumpkin.
What is a sugar pumpkin?
Often known as sugar pie pumpkins, they weigh between two and four pounds and are sweeter and less stringy than the larger counterparts. These are the pumpkins we also make pumpkin pies with. When you roast a sugar pumpkin long enough to get a char on the outside skin, the sweet flesh pulls away and is scrumptious.
How to Roast a Sugar Pumpkin
Roasting a sugar pumpkin was much easier than I expected. While squash are hard to cut through, capping off the top of the two sugar pumpkins I roasted was a snap.
They are full of seeds, lots of seeds for little guys, and there’s quite a bit to remove until you have just pure, sweet flesh, and I used an ice cream scoop.
Once that’s done, set the oven for 400 degrees F., rub the inside with olive oil and roast on baking sheet for 20 to 30 minutes. You’ll know when it’s done, as the flesh starts to separate from the skin.
Once roasted, I filled with a dollop of ricotta, drizzled a chocolate balsamic, and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. I paired this with roast chicken, and the combination is sublime.
Each bite was the perfect bite, and I can’t gush enough over this. I love roasting a chicken, but you could easily pick up a chicken at the store, grab a pumpkin and in under 30 minutes have a super delicious, big fat healthy dinner that is restaurant worthy, lower carb (even with the pomegranate) and a true celebration of Fall.
Is this Roast Pumpkin Okay on a Low Carb Diet?
Pumpkin is perfectly okay on a low carb diet and has many benefits. One cup of cooked pumpkin is 49 calories, and 6 net carbs.
A 3 pound pumpkin will give you about 2 cups of pumpkin.
Eating 1/4 serving of this recipes is 6 net carbs with the ricotta cheese and pomegranate arils.
How to Serve Roast Pumpkin
Roasted Chicken with pumpkin is delicious, but imagine eating this with roasted turkey. Great idea for the main day or leftovers. I think pulled pork or pork chops would also pair amazingly well.
The Benefits of Pumpkin
One of the things that’s very important to me is to present vegetables as often and as beautiful and enticing as possible.
Pumpkin is considered a superfood, as it’s nutrient dense, low calorie, low carb, approved for low glycemic diets, rich Vitamin A, Lutein and Zeaxanthin which some say protect eyesight.
Well, friends, there you have it, so eat more pumpkin. Most of my recipes here at Spinach Tiger are for sweet pumpkin desserts and now I feel obliged to start cooking more savory roast pumpkin recipes.
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Play around with Roasted Pumpkin Recipe
I could think of several ways to turn this roasted pumpkin recipe into a full fledged entree.
Stuff with cooked and crumbled Italian Sausage.
Stuff with Pulled Pork or left over Carnitas.
Stuff with Delicious bacon ground beef taco meat.
Ingredients
- 1 3 pound sugar pumpkin
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper each or to taste
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar or maple syrup
Instructions
- Cut off the to of the pumpkin about one or two inches from top.
- Scrape out all the seeds, and stringy flesh
- Rub the inside the with olive oil.
- Roast at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.
- Squeeze some orange an option when it comes out of oven.
- Add ricotta cheese.
- Season with Salt and Pepper
- Drizzle with a syrupy balsamic or maple syrup.
- Add Pomegranate arils
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