Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Making your own homemade pumpkin puree is a breeze! Sure, opening a can is easy, but nothing beats the out-of-this-world goodness of home-roasted pumpkin. Skip the canned stuff, and let us show you how to make pumpkin purée at home!
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Homemade Pumpkin Puree
- ⏰ Prep Time: 10 minutes
- 🕰️ Cook Time: 35-45 minutes, depending on the size of your pumpkin
- 🎃 Flavor Profile: Pure pumpkin, ready to be used in endless sweet or savory recipes.
- 🫙 Save It: Stock your freezer with homemade pumpkin puree to use all year round!
- 🍁 Good For: Anything from pumpkin spice overnight oats to fresh pumpkin pasta to pumpkin muffins to fresh pumpkin pies!
- 🧡 Difficulty: Very easy.
"This is such good info! I don't think most people realize how easy it is to make your own pumpkin puree...I have used my homemade puree with great success in pies."
- SARAH -
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- 🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Homemade Pumpkin Puree
- 🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- 🍨 The Ingredients You Need
- 🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- 🥣 How to Make Homemade Pumpkin Puree
- 🙋🏻♀️ Homemade Pumpkin Puree FAQs
- 👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- 🥧 Ways to Use This Homemade Pumpkin Puree
- 🎃 More Pumpkin Recipes
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Reviews
🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
Ready to take your fall cooking and baking to the next level? Homemade pumpkin puree is going to blow your mind. Every year I roast pie pumpkin after sugar pumpkin after baking pumpkin to stock my freezer with homemade pumpkin puree. I know opening a can is easier, but once you've tried the homemade stuff, you may never go back. Trust me!
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- Slow-roasting makes your pumpkin puree tastier. The canned stuff ain't got nothing on this homemade puree. It's sweeter and more flavorful than anything store-bought.
- It's easy, and you'll look like a rockstar. Making your own pumpkin puree is as simple as roast, peel, puree, but everyone will be so impressed when they find out you made it from scratch.
- It's tried and true. I make this pumpkin puree every year and use it in everything from dinner (like my pumpkin chili recipe) to snacks (hello pumpkin hummus) to drinks (like my pumpkin martini recipe) to desserts (hey there, pumpkin ice cream recipe) . It's always a hit!
🍨 The Ingredients You Need
- Pumpkin. That's it and that's all. Smaller pie pumpkins (also called sugar pumpkins or baking pumpkins) are the best ones to roast. Their flesh is dense and sweet. The larger pumpkins used for carving jack-o-lanterns are too watery and fibrous to make purée. When you're picking out your pie pumpkins, look for ones with nice, clean skins without bruising or marks. Green stems mean they are relatively fresh.
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- Change out the squash. This roasting and pureeing method works for any type of winter squash! In fact, the store-bought canned pumpkin puree isn't usually just pumpkin...it often containers a brighter, more orange squash like Hubbard squash.
🥣 How to Make Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Step 1: Take a sharp knife, and cut your pie pumpkin in half lengthwise. It'll take some elbow grease, but you can do it! Once you've got the pumpkin open, take a spoon and scrape out all of the seeds and strings. Save them for roasting! We'll show you how to roast pumpkin seeds, plus six different sweet and savory seasonings for them.
Step 2: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Place the two pumpkin halves, cut side down, onto the prepared baking sheet and pop it into the oven. Bake in a preheated 400°F oven until the pumpkin flesh is fork-tender and the skin is browned and puckered.
Step 3: Let the pumpkin halves cool just until you can handle them, and then find an edge of the skin and peel. It should peel back super easily and in big chunks. If it doesn't, the pumpkin needs to go back in the oven for a few more minutes. Discard the peels.
Step 4: Throw the roasted pumpkin chunks into the food processor and process on high until smooth and fully puréed. That's it!
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🙋🏻♀️ Homemade Pumpkin Puree FAQs
You can, but we don't recommend it. The big pumpkins you carve for Halloween tend to be stringier, more watery, and less flavorful. Smaller pumpkins like pie pumpkins or sugar pumpkins will make a better puree!
If you don't have a food processor, a blender will work as well, but the resulting puree may not be as smooth.
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- Save the seeds: Make sure to save those seeds to roast homemade pumpkin seeds.
- Safety first: Be careful when cutting your pumpkin! The stems are particularly hard to cut through. If you don't want to hack through it, you can cut off the stem first, or cut from the base of the stem to the bottom and repeat on the other side. Then pull the pumpkin halves apart from the bottom up. The stem will pop right off!
- How long: The amount of time it takes to roast your pumpkins will depend on the size of the squash. 35-45 minutes is a good time to start checking to see if it's done. You'll know it's ready because it will be fork-tender, and the skin will be bronzed and puckered.
- Strain it real good: If your pumpkin purée is too watery for your liking, you can strain it using cheesecloth or a Greek yogurt strainer.
🥧 Ways to Use This Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Pumpkin puree is one of my favorite "blank canvas" ingredients-for both savory and sweet uses! Here are some of my favorite ways to use it:
- In breakfast dishes like pumpkin overnight oats, pumpkin pie smoothies, whole wheat pumpkin waffles, baked pumpkin oatmeal
- Shaken into cocktails like pumpkin pie martinis.
- In pumpkin spice syrup to use on ice cream, in sangria, and making your own PSLs.
- In savory dishes like pumpkin hummus and pumpkin bean burgers.
- Cooked down into this recipe for pumpkin butter.
- Rolled out into two-ingredient homemade pumpkin pasta.
- Baked into sweet treats like pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting, healthy pumpkin bread, easy pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cake pops, or fresh pumpkin pie.
- In pumpkin dog biscuits.
🎃 More Pumpkin Recipes
If you tried this homemade pumpkin puree or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Ingredients
- 1 medium pie pumpkin
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. With a large knife, cut the pumpkin in half then scoop out the seeds (see notes).
- Place the pumpkin halves cut side down on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the flesh is tender and the pumpkin skin is puckered and brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool until it's just cool enough to handle. Peel the skin from the pumpkin halves and place the flesh in the bowl of a food processor.
- Process until smooth. If the puree is too watery, strain it using cheesecloth or a Greek yogurt strainer.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. For longer storage, portion the puree into freezer bags, flatten them, and freeze for up to a year.
Notes
- You want to avoid the big pumpkins used for carving jack-o-lanterns. Their flesh is too watery and fibrous for this recipe. Look for small sugar pumpkins (sometimes called baking pumpkins or pie pumpkins). Their flesh is dense and sweet!
- Save those pumpkin seeds! One of the best parts of making homemade pumpkin puree is that you get to roast pumpkin seeds. They make a fun and delicious snack.
Making your own pumpkin puree at home is such a breeze, and I find it has much better flavor and texture than the stuff from the store in the can. Make sure to use pie pumpkins (small pumpkins, not jack-o-lanterns) for the best flavor. Enjoy!
Have you tried with curry?
I haven't yet, but that is a great idea!
HI,
this is looking yummy and will definitely try this in my home in this weekend
Regards
Linda
I simply made pumpkin puree surprisingly from pumpkins I developed in my garden(and then a pie). It was a long process however unquestionably worth it.....
looks very delicious & Yummy.. will definitely try at home. thanks for sharing such a yummy recipe .. !! looking for more recipes from your side...!!
I just made pumpkin puree for the first time from pumpkins I grew in my garden(and then a pie). It was a long process but definitely worth it.http://ambertackles.blogspot.com/2015/09/garden-pumpkin-puree-and-pumpkin-pie.html?m=1
I put them in a baking dish with a bit of water. It doesn't make the puree more watery, it does make for easier cleaning!
@Cassie
Hi Cassie... Nice Pumpkin Puree. But one year is too long time. You have another idea which is faster than this one.
Regards
Priyanka
How long will this last in the freezer?
A year for best flavor, but you can get by longer just as long as it doesn't get frost bitten.
Yum! I just made a bunch of puree yesterday from our garden's pie pumpkins. Your method looks a bit easier than what I did. I'll do it this way when the next wave of pumpkins are ready!
Oooh, I'm curious what you did? Steam it?
NOM! I LOVEEEE pumpkin in ALL FORMS! So pumped to overdose this fall and winter 😉 Although, I sort of do, YEAR ROUND lol
Very nicely written tutorial, Cassie....
I even have pie pumpkins growing in my garden this year, so I'm all ready to make pumpkin purée!
This is such good info! I don't think most people realize how easy it is to make your own pumpkin puree. My pumpkins were ready early this year so my puree making is all done. I have used my homemade puree with great success in pies. I just pat and squeeze it well with paper towels to get rid of any excess moisture.