Fresh Pumpkin Recipes: 5 Great Ways to Use Fresh Pumpkin

More Chinese Starters Ideas

There are lots of vegetarian Chinese starters you can make. What about homemade egg rolls or spring rolls with cabbage, mushrooms and bean sprouts inside or vegetarian dumplings?

Stuffed mushrooms or zucchini work well and you can use spiced rice as the filling. They are hot, flavourful and spicy without being too spicy. If you prefer a mild flavour you can leave out the chili sauce.

You will need:

1 tablespoon black bean sauce

2 tablespoons soy milk

2 tablespoons millet flour

1 teaspoon water
Drain thoroughly and mash, blend or process to a puree.

Here are 5 ideas for using fresh pumpkin.

1. 
   Pumpkin soup Pumpkin makes wonderful soup. Always use spice with pumpkin, because its natural flavour is very mild. Traditional choice is a mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.
   
   
   


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3. 
   Pumpkin pancakes Great for breakfast, these are whizzed up in minutes. Substitute 90ml (1/2 cup) pumpkin puree for the same quantity of milk in your favourite pancake recipe and cook in a hot pan, pouring just enough batter to make small pancakes.
   
   
   You sit down to plan the menu for the week and get ready for another trip to the grocery store. There was that recipe you made a couple weeks ago that everyone loved, where is it? You dig through handwritten papers, torn out magazine pages, and tattered index cards. Stop and read a card you're you remember now you were dying to try 6 months back. Somehow when it came to your home filing system you just never got to the kitchen. Now is the time to take action and get all those recipes organized!
   
   Main courses could be broken into Hot and Cold, or Vegetarian and Meat.
   
   Alphabetize your recipes within each category once you have them sorted.
   
   While you're sorting have you been coming across recipes that no one liked, you never made, or are something you've found a better recipe for? Now is the time to purge your collection. Don't put back recipes you aren't going to use again now that you have everything spread out. Recipes you didn't like can just go into the recycling. If it is a recipe you still want to try I would suggest one of two options. You could admit you aren't really going to try it and recycle it, or you can create a "recipes to try" category in your home filing system. Tuck any size recipe behind a tab in an accordion file. A three ring binder or photo album are both excellent options. They both allow flexibility for sizes of recipes, and give you the ability to add in pages where you need them as your collection grows and changes. They will easily stay open while you cook, and can be easily cleaned off if you spill food on your recipe.
   
   
   Electronic Recipes: Keeping our recipes on computers as oppose to on paper is becoming more and more common. Also you don't need your computer in order to access your recipes, all you need is an internet connection.
   
   Regardless whether you choose to go with paper recipes or electronic recipes don't underrate the effect of organizing the portion of your home filing system. Think of the daily frustration that could be eliminated by organizing getting your recipes. Take the time to organize today!