Homemade Kabocha Squash Pumpkin Purée:
How & Why to Use Squash, Not Pumpkin,
for 100% Pure "Pumpkin"

Laugh if you like but the best 100% pumpkin purée – made at home from scratch – is made from squash, not pumpkin.

Over the years, I’ve had mixed results baking a whole pumpkin – the roasting part is easy, but some times the flesh is wonderful, other times it is watery and lifeless, even after draining out a surprising amount of liquid. (Want more detail? See How to Roast a Whole Pumpkin from A Veggie Venture.)

So two years ago I switched to kabocha squash. Finally! Each batch has been remarkable: thick and colorful with real pumpkin-y flavor. Plus, you know how wine people will say that a certain wine has ‘notes of hay’ or ‘a lingering fruitiness’? To my nose, kabocha-squash pumpkin purée is fruity with ‘notes of pear’.

Then – and this was a real revelation – I switched from a fussy “cut the squash into wedges and roast” technique to one that is unbelievably simple.

Just throw the squash in the oven. Whole. No cutting. No fussing. Just throw it in the oven whole. (Funny story? I first wrote this column before switching to the new simple method. I had to rewrite the column!)

Besides sheer easiness, roasting kabocha squash whole has two other huge benefits, besides. First, all the moisture stays inside the squash, so the flesh remains moist and flavorful instead of drying out. Second, the squash flesh doesn't brown, this means the color of the purée is pretty golden orange rather than a muddy orange.

Now please know, making pumpkin purée from scratch is no bargain. In fact, even with relatively inexpensive $.79 a pound kabocha squash, the homemade purée is three times more expensive than a can of 100% pumpkin from the grocery store. But it is a treat for special occasions, a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, say, or an extra-moist pumpkin bread.

So making pumpkin purée from scratch is an extra, a luxury even, so let’s not beat ourselves up if we’re happy with cans of inexpensive pumpkin purée. My pantry holds a can or two or three all year long. It’s one of the few ‘whole ingredients’ to be found in the inner aisles of a grocery store.

Homemade pumpkin purée made from kabocha squash, it’s remarkable but it’s not required. But now that it’s easy and so delicious? I'm completely smitten and make it all the time. I think you might too.

EXPERIMENTING WITH OTHER SQUASHES Others have luck roasting butternut squash for pumpkin purée. That hasn’t worked for me, the texture is too rough, too fibrous. I recently roasted a calabaza squash, that’s the squash that Libby’s uses for its 100% Pure Pumpkin. It’s got a lovely orange color but is more watery and the flavor just doesn’t compare to kabocha. I won't try it again.

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Do you have a favorite pumpkin recipe (especially a savory pumpkin recipe) that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. Follow Kitchen Parade on Facebook!