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Roasted Pumpkin Wheels

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Description

The cooking freeze

Defn; planned a meal, went to prepare recipe, discovered missing ingredients, didn’t know what to cook.

Synonym; brain freeze; improvisation; road block; oops !!!
and also a few words that are best described *$&#, %!&#, !^*@….

This should have been a recipe about roasted, curried cauliflower florets, chorizo and shaved brussel sprouts. Depending on your taste buds though, you might like this one better.

I sincerely hate the moment where you open the fridge, with a preconceived image in your head of what’s in the crisper – only to discover that’s not quite the case and oh yeah, remembering it was used up the other day.. or worse, when there’s just a bite size morsel left..

By this stage, I’d gone through the motions of annoyance – contemplation (grocery run) – blank space – frustration – blank space – question mark. Lucky for the leftover pumpkin! Flour free, no prep time… is it possible? YES.

Tip 1. If you are leaving the skin on (which we did), wash the pumpkin well and pat dry with kitchen paper.  Crispy, shriveling roasted pumpkin skins hold these tasty morsels together.

Tip 2. Double, triple, quadruple the recipe – it relies wholly on how much butternut pumpkin you have and what you wish to top them with.

For ours, we settled on fresh basil, tomato and bio (vegan) cheese; mushrooms, green olives, anchovies & bio cheese; spinach, sweet cherry tomatoes, tofutti (vegan cream cheese); ham, mushroom, kalamata olive & bio cheese.

Next time, we’re going to try them with leftover chargrilled vegetables like eggplant and zucchini – so try any combo that suits you!

Catering an evening in with family and friends? Pre-prepare the pumpkin wheels and then set up your own make-line with a big bunch of ingredients, then have your guests create their own masterpiece. This also helps keep it kid-friendly, particularly when you don’t know what someone else’s kids will and won’t eat!

Ingredients

Butternut Pumpkins
Tomato paste (salt reduced preferred)
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. oregano
Toppings of choice

Directions

1
Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius (fan forced).
2
Line a large oven tray with baking paper.
3
If leaving the skin on (recommended), wash and pat dry the pumpkin/s.
4
Slice the pumpkin ends to approximately 1cm thickness.
5
*** TIP: Stop slicing when you reach seeds and use the opposite end of the pumpkin - you want whole pieces of pumpkin without any soft, seedy or missing middles.
6
Lay the pumpkin out on the baking tray, if desired sprinkle with a pinch of rock salt and olive oil. Place in the oven for 30 minutes.
7
Meanwhile, mix the tomato paste with basil and oregano (and any other herbs/spices as desired).
8
After 30 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool briefly.
9
Swirl a small teaspoon of sauce over the pumpkin wheels.
10
Top with desired toppings.
11
Place back in the oven for 15 minutes or until toppings are fully cooked and any cheese (if used) is melted.
12
Serve while warm on a large platter for family, friends and guests to pick their own - or better yet, prepare the pumpkins and create your very own make-line with all kinds of toppings and make your family, friends and guests create their own masterpiece.