Gluten-Free Baked Pumpkin - Super Healthy!: A simple to make Baked Pumpkin recipe that will serve as the foundation for many other pumpkin-based and pumpkin-accented recipes.
The Baked-Pumpkin (or Cooked/Microwaved Pumpkin) Recipe is quite simply, about as healthy of a gluten-free food you can find. It has an incredibly low glycemic-index, is full of essential vitamins, protein, and nutrients, plus it delivers a nice dose of your daily fiber requirements - all with a mild taste that is easily accented (as it is in pumpkin pie and other dishes).
Text Version of Gluten-Free Recipe
Directions:
- Simply take your pumpkin-pie pumpkin and split it vertically in half (from the stem at the top, to the center point at the bottom.
- Scoop out all the seeds and loose fibers in the middle of each pumpkin half
- In an oven-safe pan or pyrex dish an inch or two deep and large enough to hold the two halves of the pumpkin, place 1/2" of warm tap water.
- Now, invert the pumpkin halves in the water (i.e., center of pumpkin facing down in pan)
- Place in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes - when ready, a fork or knife should easily slide through the pumpkin.
- Remove from oven.
- Carefully (remember, this pumpkin is hot!) use a spoon to scrape the fleshy inside of the pumpkin away from the very thin rind, and place this onto serving plates or into a bowl for serving.
- Suggested topping: upon serving, sprinkle a bit of cinnamon over each portion served, and perhaps a bit of granulated Splenda (or sugar / brown-sugar if you don't mind the calories or don't watch your sugar intake).
Nutrition Data
With the baked pumpkin being so mild on its own, the slight accent of cinnamon and a sweetener should remind you just a bit of a pumpkin pie. And, when it comes to health, you can't get much better than the nutrition of cooked pumpkin (check out that link - it is a really useful nutritional analysis site), which for every half-pound of cooked / baked pumpkin yields:
