After our Maple Roasted Carrots, here comes another festive side dish. Delicious Maple Roasted Pumpkin with crunchy Hazelnuts and fresh Mint.
We made this dish for the first time a couple of years ago for Thanksgiving and our friends have been asking for the recipe ever since. It's a simple dish that brings to your table yummy flavours and beautiful colours.
This side dish is sweet from the natural caramelization that pumpkin goes through when roasting it plus the added maple syrup, it's packed full of flavour from the different spices used such as nutmeg, ginger powder and sweet paprika, as well as crunchy from the toasted hazelnuts added before serving. The last touch on this roasted pumpkin is adding fresh mint and lemon zest on the top. The combination of all the ingredients is just magical.
This maple roasted pumpkin is the perfect dish to serve during your Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween or any other fall/winter special occasions. Our recipe is simple to prepare and the oven will do most of the work, giving you time to prepare the other dishes for the day. It's vegan and gluten-free, so the perfect option to please everyone!
Ingredients
Pumpkin. You can cook this recipe with different varieties of pumpkins. We recommend using Kabocha, Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, Winter or Butternut Squash. For this side dish, we use Long Island Cheese Pumpkin. It has a smooth texture and a lovely flavour. The skin is not too thick so the pumpkin will cook fast enough.
Maple Syrup. This is used to push the caramelization of the pumpkin slices and bring out that lovely flavour and fragrance. You can choose to use honey (not vegan) or sugar.
Spices. Ginger, black pepper, sweet paprika and nutmeg. We recommend using freshly grated nutmeg, freshly grounded black pepper and good quality spices.
Hazelnuts. Toasted Hazelnuts are added on the top of the pumpkin once roasted. They complete the dish giving the pumpkin a crunchy bite.
Fresh Mint. We sprinkle finely chopped fresh mint before serving the dish to give some contrast of colours and taste.
Lemon Zest. The last touch to this dish, grated lemon zest. We use our Microplane Grater to get the lemon peel really finely grated.
How to cut and cook the Pumpkin for our Maple Roasted Pumpkin recipe
The first step to make this recipe successfully is to cut and cook the pumpkin properly.
To cut the pumpkin into half-moons or wedges, using a large knife, firstly cut the top and bottom off the pumpkin. Then, cut it in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds using a spoon. Cut each part into wedges. Adapt the thickness of the wedge to your taste, trying to not have too thin or to thick slices.
Place the pumpkin wedges on a baking tray. We recommend using a silicone baking mat on the tray to make sure the pumpkin doesn't stick to the tray and breaks when trying to serve.
Add maple syrup, olive oil, sweet paprika, ginger powder, nutmeg and black pepper. Coat the pumpkin slices using your hands making sure all the ingredients are evenly combined.
Preheat the oven to 210ºC or 410ºF, fan assisted. Roast the pumpkin slices for about 30 minutes or until they are completely cooked.
Prepare the toppings for your Roasted Pumpkin
Our maple roasted pumpkin is topped with hazelnuts, fresh mint and lemon zest. Before adding the toppings, make sure you will be eating all the slices, or keep aside any pumpkin wedges that you want to save for another day.
The hazelnuts we use are toasted. If you have raw hazelnuts, you can quickly toast them using a small pan and no oil. Simply heat the pan, add the hazelnuts and keep stirring until they are crunchy and toasted. Roughly crush the hazelnuts and sprinkle on the top of the pumpkin.
Finely chop the fresh mint and sprinkle on the top and finally, grate some lemon zest and add on the top.
Your pumpkin will be packed full of different textures, colours and flavours.
How to use Leftover Pumpkin
If after cooking this dish you have leftover pumpkin, you can use it to make other meals like a lovely Roasted Pumpkin Soup.
You can as well, cut the slices into smaller pieces and add them into a salad or you could even make a pumpkin hummus, combining the leftover pumpkin with chickpeas, cumin, black pepper and tahini and blending all the ingredients using a food processor.
Serving Suggestions
Christmas and Easter at home include this Maple Roasted Pumpkin serve with our delicious Vegan Nut Roast or Vegan Wellington. These dishes complement each other beautifully. If you need some other side dishes to go with your meal, you could make Maple Roasted Carrots, or a healthy Winter Salad too.
Once you try this dish, you will see how versatile is. Slightly changing the toppings, you can adapt this recipe to go with any meal.
Maple Roasted Pumpkin with Hazelnuts and Mint
Ingredients
- 850 g Pumpkin Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- Salt
- ¼ cup hazelnuts toasted
- 10 mint leaves
- Zest of half a lemon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 210ºC or 410ºF, fan assisted
- To cut the pumpkin into half-moons or wedges, using a large knife, firstly cut the top and bottom off the pumpkin. Then, cut it in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds using a spoon. Cut each part into wedges.
- Place the pumpkin wedges on a baking tray. Add the maple syrup, olive oil, sweet paprika, ginger powder, nutmeg, black pepper and salt. Coat the pumpkin slices using your hands making sure all the ingredients are evenly combined.
- Roast the pumpkin slices for about 30 minutes or until they are completely cooked.
- When the pumpkin is ready, take it out of the oven and let it cool for a few minutes.
- Roughly crush the hazelnuts and finely chop the fresh mint and sprinkle on the top of the pumpkin.
- Add the grated lemon zest and your dish will be ready to serve.
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| If you tried our recipe, please leave a comment or tag us on Instagram @Sixhungryfeet. We are always happy to see your creations! |
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