Fermented Pumpkins

For Halloween 2018, we had a special workshop focusing on fermented pumpkins. Here are the recipes showed during the presentation! Of course, do not forget to always clean everything with hot water or disinfectant before cooking and making fermented productions! Please also note that organic ingredients will always be better to start a fermentation.

Kombucha recipe:
-Heat 1L of water to 93°C, add 5gr of tea and 70gr of brown sugar then infuse for 10 minutes
-Filter and wait until the liquid is at room temperature
-Add SCOBY or put into the kombucha, wait 4-5 days (F1)
-Taste the acidity, take ⅓ (or ⅔) and start (F2)

Pumpkin kombucha recipe:
-Cut a pumpkin in pieces and remove the skin and seeds
-Roast the pumpkin without any fat in the oven, check the temperature and make sure it doesn’t burn (starts to become black)
-Let the pumpkin cool down and choose your spices
-Add the pumpkin and spices in your kombucha, in a different bottle or vessel (F2) and wait 4 days before filtering and drinking

Did you know? Pumpkin spices, very popular during October in the USA are the following: cinnamon / nutmeg / ginger / cloves / allspices

Pumpkin hot sauce recipe:

-Cut organic peppers and pumpkin (remove the skin and seeds) in piece and put in a jar
-Add some salt, wait and press (use a tool or a glove)
-Complete with clean water until everything is submerged
-Add 2,5% total weight (excluding jar) of salt
-Open every day, wait until there are no reactions
-Mix and Filter

Lacto-fermented pumpkin recipe:

-Cut an organic pumpkin in pieces, remove seeds and skin
-Add some peel + spices of your choice + salt
-Press and complete with water
-Add 2,5% of total weight (excluding jar) in salt
-Wait one week

You can also keep the seeds, put them in water and salt during 4 days, then roast them with some spices in the oven to get a crunchy and easy snack!

Did you know? To keep some vegetables or fruits crunchy, add some “tanin” in your preparation. This compound, that gives a dry and bitter taste, can be found on some vegetables or fruit skin and seed but also in wood or on leaf. 

Pumpkin ketchup recipe:

-In some hot oil, add two spoons of celery, one onion and one garic (cut in pieces), one tomato and 250g of pumpkin pieces (again, remove the skin and seeds) with one laurier leaf
-Wait until everything is boiling
-Add 25cl of water and 10cl of red wine vinegar
-Add 40g of sugar + salt and pepper
-Cover the pan and let it gently warm up for 40 minutes, keep steering every 5 or 10 minutes until the preparation is getting thick
-Remove the laurier leaf, mix everything  and wait until the sauce is cold