It’s easy to talk about the benefits of eating seasonal food, but putting it into practice can be more challenging than it seems. To help inspire fresh ideas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, let’s focus on perhaps the healthiest local December ingredient — pumpkin.
Choose the brightest orange pumpkins if you enjoy a sweet, “carrot-like” flavor, or pale orange, elongated varieties if you prefer a more “vegetable-forward” taste. The delicate flavor of any variety allows for versatile dishes: creamy breakfasts, light salads, hearty vegetable mains, or even desserts.
Pumpkin is packed with vitamins A, B, C, PP, and E (which helps prevent wrinkles and aging when consumed regularly), fiber, and minerals such as calcium, iron, copper, fluoride, and zinc. It also contains rare vitamin T, which aids in digesting heavy foods, and pectin, which helps remove cholesterol, radioactive substances, toxic metals, radionuclides, and pesticides from the body.
The combination of carotene and vitamin E in pumpkin makes it a powerful immune booster, helping prevent colds and supporting retinal health. With all these benefits, it’s impossible not to cook with it!
- 2 kg pumpkin flesh (+-150 g)
- 2 white sweet onions
- 3 tbsp. olive oil
- a handful of sage leaves
- salt and pepper
This dish can also be made with rosemary and garlic, thyme and cardamom, or chili and cinnamon.
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Wash the pumpkin and, without peeling, cut it into small wedges. Slice the onions into eighths. Toss the pumpkin and onions with sage leaves, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Roast for 30–35 minutes until tender and slightly caramelized.
This dish can also be made with rosemary and garlic, thyme and cardamom, or chili and cinnamon.
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Wash the pumpkin and, without peeling, cut it into small wedges. Slice the onions into eighths. Toss the pumpkin and onions with sage leaves, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Roast for 30–35 minutes until tender and slightly caramelized.
