Freezing Pumpkin

aries62, May 6, 4:12am
M y husband has grown some giant pumpkins can pumpkin be frozen raw or does it need to be parboiled.Also does it need to be peeled if raw Thanks in advance

matt-wgtn, May 6, 4:21am
I peel, cut and freeze as individual roast sized pieces.

lilyfield, May 6, 3:29pm
I don,t peel it. Eat the peel, good for you.

pickles7, May 6, 4:08pm
I have never frozen pumpkin raw myself. I cut it into serving sized pieces and microwave it till near cooked then freeze. When required I put in into the roasting dish frozen with the other vegetables. We like our pumpkin very well cooked.

buzzy110, May 6, 7:25pm
I've recently been told about 'drying' them before freezing only it wasn't really drying. The lady would peel and cut into biggish cubes - not too big. The smaller the cubes the more she could fit into a bag.

Then she dry baked them in the oven until they had sort of dried on the outside to a hard skin but were still slightly firm on the inside. I think she said about 160dC for about 1½hrs but I guess any temp for any length of time would do so long as the end result was a dry, harder exterior and a slightly hard interior.

She said they tasted really nice when taken out of the freezer and cooking was finished.

I'm thinking of trying it. I'd love pumpkin for Xmas if for no other time and it is always expensive and not that nice at that time of the year.

fishplants, May 10, 9:10pm
You can freeze all pumpkins - better cooked than raw though. I always cook a whole pumpkin then freeze the leftovers for a soup or stew.

However before you go to all that work - try and cook a piece.

If they are giant pumpkins then they are most likely "Atlantic Giant" which is a feed pumpkin and tastes like a very watery overgrown marrow. Not nice at all to eat.

If you have lots then get a piglet and feed it on your pumpkin pieces then eat the piglet - much nicer I think! :)

marcs, May 13, 8:58pm
We have had a fair few out of our garden this year. I have chopped them up and roasted them with skin on (this way you can do big batches and skin comes off very easily one cooked) and then just frozen them in containers. I take them out the freezer and use them in soups, in baking and mash.

lofty010247, Aug 2, 1:15pm
Have frozen raw pieces and cooked up fine . hardest part was the cutting up LOL!