Pumpkin in lemon caramel is an original and easy-to-prepare dessert. This recipe will accustom children to pumpkin dishes, after which they will definitely fall in love with this root vegetable.
Recipe contents:
Good to know about pumpkin
Dishes made from pumpkin are popular and loved all over the world. In European countries, salads, casseroles, purees, soups are prepared from it, and in Austria you can even taste pumpkin coffee and schnapps. In Armenia, pumpkin is stewed with lentils, baked, stuffed with dogwood with nuts or rice, added to pilaf, and in India they make excellent halva from it.
How is pumpkin useful and why is it recommended to include it in children's menus and the diet of older people? Regular consumption of pumpkin will replenish the body with essential vitamins and microelements. The pulp of the product contains beta-carotene and antioxidants. Beta-carotene enters the body and is converted into the necessary vitamin A, which normalizes the functioning of the immune system. Vitamin A also takes care of the health of skin, hair, vision and bone tissue.
It is also recommended to use pumpkin as part of your diet. For example, starting with obesity and atherosclerosis, and ending with diseases of the nervous and genitourinary systems. For people trying to lose weight, pumpkin dishes are also very useful. After all, its calorie content is very low; 100 g contains only 28 kcal. Moreover, unlike cabbage, which is difficult to get enough of, pumpkin saturates the body very well and for a long time. Another good property of pumpkin is its long shelf life, which allows it to be consumed when the body needs vitamins and its beneficial properties.
Health Benefits of Lemon
Lemon pulp contains a huge amount of organic acids, pectin substances, sugars, phytoncides, carotene, vitamins such as thiamine, ascorbic and galacturonic acid, riboflavin, rutin, flavonoids, coumarin derivatives, sesquiterpenes, eridictyol, hesperidin, eriocitrin.
Many of these substances are very useful for hypertension, heart disorders, urolithiasis, vitamin deficiency and gastrointestinal diseases. These fruits are also used for hypovitaminosis, rheumatism, mineral metabolism disorders, scurvy, atherosclerosis, sore throat and gout.
- Calorie content per 100 g - 33 kcal.
- Number of servings - 2
- Cooking time - 50 minutes
Ingredients:
- Pumpkin - 400 g
- Lemon - 1 pc.
- Sugar - to taste (can be replaced with honey)
Cooking pumpkin in lemon caramel
1. Since pumpkin fruits are always large, cut off the necessary part from it and put the rest of the pumpkin in the refrigerator. But know that if you have already cut the pumpkin, it will not be stored for long; it should be used within a week.
Peel a piece of pumpkin and cut the pulp into cubes no larger than 2 cm. Place the pumpkin slices in an even layer in a heat-resistant dish. The baking dish can be any: ceramic, glass, clay and even silicone.
2. Wash the lemon, peel it and cut it into pieces the same size as the pumpkin. Place lemon wedges on top of squash. Do not throw away the peeled peel; it can be used to brew tea, make puddings, or simply twist it with sugar.
3. Sprinkle the pumpkin and lemon with sugar, which you can replace with honey, but only if you are not allergic to bee products.
4. Mix pumpkin and lemon well so that the sugar is evenly distributed. Cover the baking dish with a lid or wrap it in baking foil. Heat the oven to 200 degrees and bake the pumpkin for 35-40 minutes. If you want the pumpkin to be covered with a golden crust, then 10 minutes before cooking, remove the lid (baking foil) from the pan. The dessert can be served either hot or chilled.
Autumn is pumpkin season. Every year at this time our refrigerator is simply filled with pumpkin.
I shared the recipe for pumpkin with basil and pumpkin pancakes with you last fall, today I’ll tell you how to cook sweet pumpkin in lemon caramel.
Sweet varieties of squash, such as butternut squash, work best for this recipe. True, this time I came across a not very bright specimen, usually a nutmeg pumpkin of a bright orange color. And there are practically no seeds in it - just pulp.
To prepare sweet pumpkin in lemon caramel you will need:
- pumpkin;
- sugar;
- lemon;
- baking dish with lid.
1. Cut the pumpkin into cubes with a side of about 2 cm.
2. Place the pumpkin in a mold and sprinkle with sugar.
3. Cut the lemon into pieces (you can directly with the skin) and distribute over the pumpkin.
4. Cover the pan with a lid (if there is no lid, you can use foil) and place in a preheated oven for 30 minutes. Check the pumpkin's readiness with a toothpick - it should become soft.
5. When the pumpkin is almost ready, open the lid and keep in the oven without a lid for another 5 minutes. It is best to serve chilled. And be sure to drizzle the pumpkin pieces with the caramel you get as a result of cooking.
Bon appetit!
To prepare this dessert you will not need very many ingredients: pumpkin, walnuts, herbes de Provence, sugar and butter. Peel the pumpkins and cut into circles no more than 1 cm thick. 
Grease the pumpkin circles with oil, sprinkle with herbs, place in a greased baking dish and place in the oven preheated to 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Heat a dry frying pan. Pour sugar into a hot frying pan and wait for it to turn into caramel (no need to stir or mix).
Chop the walnuts a little, add to the pan with the caramel and stir.
Place one baked pumpkin circle on a plate.
Place some caramelized nuts on top (you need to do this quickly before the caramel hardens).
Repeat layers, alternating pumpkin and butternut squash, until desired height. The top layer is caramelized nuts. An appetizing, bright, tasty dessert is ready. Be sure to try it, because spiced pumpkin goes well with caramelized nuts.
I usually buy pumpkin; somehow neither we, nor our relatives, nor our friends have ever grown it. And this year my brother and his wife brought us a “little” surprise; it was my brother’s wife’s mother who gave my son a gift in honor of his “entry” to kindergarten.
In my opinion, it's just a great gift. After all, pumpkin is a very healthy berry. It contains a huge amount of valuable substances. For example, pumpkin contains 5 times more carotene than carrots, which is why many ophthalmologists recommend eating pumpkin for people with visual impairments. It can also be called a champion among vegetables in terms of iron content. Pumpkin is valuable for preventing kidney and liver function. The pulp of its fruits improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, removes excess water, toxins and bad cholesterol from the body. You can talk a lot about the beneficial and medicinal properties of this berry-vegetable, but you don’t really want to eat it raw, and why would you, when there are many pumpkin dishes, some tasty and some not so tasty. Well, let's get to the point.
For this simple dessert we will need:
1 kg peeled pumpkin,
0.5 cups sugar,
1 large (1.5 small) lemon.
Peel the pumpkin and remove seeds and cut into cubes of approximately 2 cm.
Remove the peel from the lemon (of course, you don’t need to throw it away; you can, for example, brew some tea) and cut it into small cubes.
Place the pumpkin in the mold, add sugar and lemon.
Mix everything, cover with a lid, if you have one, or with foil and place in the oven, preheated to 175 degrees for 30 minutes.
We take it out, mix it and put it in the oven again, just without covering it.
My pumpkin was ready in another 20 minutes.
As I already said, my pumpkin is not covered with a caramel crust, but simply “floats” in a delicious sweet and sour sauce, but I even like it. Perhaps if we added more sugar, the result would be more caramel, but it seems to me that it would be too sweet, otherwise everything is in moderation, the pumpkin pieces are soaked in this sauce and no longer acquire a pumpkin taste. My son devours these pumpkin wedges, both with and without sauce. And today, for example, I poured this sauce on his porridge; during illness, like many children, he refuses to eat, but not in this case.
Let's look at how to prepare pumpkin in lemon caramel in a slow cooker. This is a dish, in my opinion, thanks to which your children will finally truly appreciate and love this autumn gift of nature. If someone has not included pumpkin in their menu before, then after tasting this dessert they will certainly ask to make it again. When prepared, pumpkin pieces resemble marmalade that literally melts in your mouth, and its taste is generally difficult to describe in words. There is some similarity with pineapple, and the pieces inside are sweet, and on top they have a slight sourness.
Choosing the right pumpkin for dessert
To make pumpkin in lemon caramel in a slow cooker delicious, you need to choose a good vegetable. Do not take unripe pumpkin with pale flesh, this is not suitable. The vegetable should be meaty, juicy and bright orange.
It is easy to determine the ripeness of a pumpkin - if it has a dry stalk, the vegetable is ripe. If the stalk is removed and the vegetable itself is cut, look and taste the seeds. The seeds should be plump, as if filled with moisture, and crispy in taste.
Requirements for a multicooker (temperature regulator and steam release valve)
Which multicooker is suitable for cooking pumpkin in lemon caramel? Some models of multicookers are not equipped with a temperature regulator in the “Baking” mode. If you have such a function and you can set the temperature yourself, then feel free to start preparing dessert.
If you have a multicooker that does not provide temperature control, but simply turns on the “Baking” mode, then you can also make this dessert, but it is better to play it safe and place the pumpkin with lemon not directly on the bottom of the bowl, but on foil. This must be done so that pieces of fruit and vegetables along with sugar do not burn to the bottom of the bowl, because the automatically set temperature may be higher than what we need.
Not all multicookers are also equipped with an adjustable steam release valve. There are models in which it is constantly in one mode. If the valve on your multicooker can be opened and closed manually, this is good; at the final stage of cooking, you can set it to the “open” or “open” position so that the pieces dry out slightly. If your valve is not adjustable, no problem, you can then transfer the dessert to the oven for 10 minutes, where all excess moisture will evaporate.
Pumpkin in lemon caramel - recipe in a slow cooker
So, finally, let's start preparing our dessert.
Ingredients: 700 g pumpkin pulp; 100 g sugar, 1 lemon.
If you bought a whole pumpkin, cut it open and remove all the seeds and fibrous parts. Remove the leathery layer. Cut the peeled pulp into cubes with a side of about 2 cm. The lemon must be freed from the skin, since for dessert we only need its inner fruit part. Cut the peeled citrus into cubes, but much smaller in size than the pumpkin. Mix the fruit pieces with granulated sugar.
Now take a large sheet of foil. Line the bottom of the multicooker bowl with it. Without lubricating it with anything, place the sweet slices. Fold the edges of the foil slightly inward, but do not try to cover or seal the contents. Close the multicooker lid and valve to allow steam to remain inside. Turn on baking mode and set the temperature to 180 degrees. Dessert baking time is 30 minutes.
After the specified time has passed, open the valve to release the steam completely; all excess moisture should evaporate. Set the baking time to 10 minutes. If your valve is not adjustable, carefully, so as not to get burned, open the multicooker, take out the dessert, holding the foil, and transfer the package to an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 10 minutes. Leave the foil open, then all the moisture will completely evaporate.
In 10 minutes the dish will be ready, but it is better to eat it not hot or warm, but cold. Place the fragrant pieces of pumpkin in lemon caramel on a beautiful dish, leave them on the table to cool a little, and then put them in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.
Tangerines and oranges - should I add them?
On the Internet there are recipes for pumpkin in lemon caramel, in which, in addition to the listed ingredients, tangerines or oranges are also used. Do I need to add them? It all depends on your taste preferences, although, as some housewives say, the taste of these fruits is almost not felt in the finished dish. And if this is actually the case, then there is no point in adding them.
Some women recommend adding nuts - walnuts or almonds - to the finished dish. If you like nuts, then follow their advice. Crush the pumpkin in lemon caramel with chopped nuts. Some people also like to add dried fruits to this dessert - raisins, dried apricots or prunes. Why not? If your household loves to eat them, feel free to add them. We have given you only a basic, classic recipe for making this tasty and healthy dessert.
By the way, this dish is just as easy to prepare in the oven at 180 degrees. First, the ingredients are baked in a mold for half an hour, covered with foil, and at the end the sheet of foil is opened, again, in order to dry the pieces from moisture.
It’s hard to refuse such a fragrant and mouth-watering dessert. If your kids are not allergic to citrus fruits, be sure to prepare this delicacy for them. When cold, it really looks like marmalade, and the pumpkin flavor is not noticeable at all, except that the aroma gives itself away a little.
Dear readers, if you know another recipe for how to cook pumpkin in caramel in a slow cooker, please share it using the comment form.
