Cozy Fall Cooking: Try These Pumpkin Recipes

It wouldn’t be fall without pumpkins—and those orange globes are for way more than just decoration. Try some creative pumpkin recipes this season, and you’ll become addicted to the rich, fabulous flavors.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Make from-scratch pumpkin pie with your own pumpkin purée—it’s easier than you think! Make it even better by creating a super-flaky crust with these tips for the perfect pie crust.

Pumpkin Butter

Have you tried homemade apple butter? YUM. Take that flavor and amp it up a bit by whipping up a batch of pumpkin butter. Start out with one of the best pumpkin varieties for cooking, and you can’t go wrong. With your pumpkin butter, you can make Pumpkin Butter Cake, Pumpkin Milkshakes, and Pumpkin Bread (recipes all included in the above link).

Flavor-Packed Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Don’t toss those pumpkin seeds when you’re carving or cooking your pumpkins! Instead, spice up and roast your seeds for a simple snack. This link will take you to recipes for sweet, spicy and zingy pumpkin seeds.

Happy fall!

Related Care2 articles:

• Fall Recipe Ideas
• Growing and Cooking with Sweet Potatoes
• Gluten-Free Pie Crust

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Read more: All recipes, Appetizers & Snacks, Desserts, Food, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian, cooking tips, homemade, pie, pumpkins, recipes

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8 Essentials for Making Great Soup

Here in the northeast, it is warm soup time, and with the abundance of autumn vegetables, sweet squash and tree fruits, the possibilities for exciting recipes ignite the imagination. The essential ingredients for making great soup may vary from culture to culture, but they each work magic in very simple ways. Slow cooking yields the best results, while soup pots, as well as quality ingredients, can make the difference between a great or a mediocre soup.

1. Soup Pots

• Use a heavy saucepan, or soup pot (enamel on iron), that allows for long, slow cooking.
• A crock pot is great when you are busy, plus you can arrive home to the delicious aromas.
• A pressure cooker allows for quick cooking of beans, lentils and root vegetables, while preserving flavor.

2. Soup Stock Base

• Vegetable stock can be made by simmering chopped vegetables and herbs in water, then straining.
• Store-bought vegetable broth can taste overly strong and contain high amounts of salt, so use less and add more water.
• Vegetable bouillon cubes vary in quality, and the oil used can go rancid over time. Choose wisely.
• A shiitake-kombu dashi is the simple broth used as a base for miso and other Japanese soup recipes.

Next: Best vegetables and oils

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Read more: All recipes, Basics, Blogs, Eating for Health, Food, Rejuvenate your Body with Delia Quigley, Soups & Salads, Vegan, Vegetarian, herbs, miso, soup, soup stock, soups, vegetable soup

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Gluten-Free Pie Crust and Breakfast Muffins

Finding excellent wheat-free and gluten-free recipes for desserts and baked goods can sometimes be a challenge. My fiancé was diagnosed with gluten-intolerance about a year and a half ago, so we’ve both been slowly delving deeper into gluten-free baking experiments.

Today, I’d like to share a couple of recipes with you that can be enjoyed if you’re gluten-intolerant and also if you just plain love good food!

Gluten-Free Coconut Pie Crust

The thought of having to give up pie is too much to take! Thankfully, you can make pie crusts with several kinds of gluten-free flours. Such as in the recipe I’d like to share with you, you can even go with a delightful combo of coconut flour and shredded coconut for your pie crust. YUM! This crust recipe also calls for half a cup of oat flour.

Go to Fall Recipe: Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie with Coconut Crust for complete details. (A bonus is that this article, as the title indicates, includes a season-appropriate recipe for pumpkin pie filling—but you can fill this pie crust with the filling of your choice.)

Breakfast Muffins

If you enjoy savory baked goods to start off your morning, you’ll love these cheesy, oniony breakfast muffins. They’re pretty quick to prepare, and baking them will fill your house with a to-die-for aroma. They call for a gluten-free baking mix called Pamela’s, which is available in many stores. The muffins only take about 15 minutes in the oven. Experiment by adding different combos of herbs to the recipe to create unique flavor blends.

Go to Gluten-Free Breakfast Muffins for the complete recipe.

Gluten-Free Grains

If you’re insterested in cooking and baking with whole grains that don’t contain gluten, check out this article about millet, rice, oats, quinoa, teff and more.

More Care2 articles with creative recipes:

• 5 Ways to Savor the Flavors of Summer
• Creative Ways to Use Zucchini
• All About Artichokes

Photo from www.MotherEarthNews.com

Read more: All recipes, Basics, Desserts, Diet & Nutrition, Food, breakfast, breakfast foods, celiac, gluten, gluten free, pie, pie crust, pumpkins, recipes

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