Halloween always comes faster than I expect it to. I never have a costume ready and each year I swear that next year, I’ll plan early and have a fantastic costume. (We really discussed a plan last night. We have a family costume that includes baby next year.) This year, I’m using my pregnancy as a scape goat when the reality is, I probably wouldn’t have dressed up anyway. I know. Lame. My excuse is that I just focus on the food. Yet, I can’t take all the credit here since Lon came up with this great Halloween side dish idea: an edible pumpkin patch.

I did execute and Lon was more than pleased with the transition from his vision to my hands. This is more of a plating design idea than a recipe and it’s so shockingly simple. It can be made with literally 2 ingredients: sweet potato and pea shoots. Actually, you can use this for Thanksgiving too!





How to Make a Pumpkin Patch Side Dish:

Bake some sweet potatoes (with holes poked with forks) wrapped in aluminum foil at 375 degrees F until soft. The time will vary depending on the size of the sweet potato but average one takes about an hour. Allow them to cool enough so you don’t burn yourself and peel them. Mash the sweet potato with a fork. You can add butter, brown sugar, salt and pepper if you like or leave it plain depending on your taste preference.

Form the mash into circles and ovals. Pumpkins come in many shapes and sizes. Draw lines with a toothpick. Use pea shoots to decorate as stems and vines. You can serve them all on one plate as a family style side dish or place a pumpkin on the side of each plate.



Tips and Notes:

~Pea Shoots can be purchased at most Chinese supermarkets.

~Figure each pound of sweet potato to serve 3 people.

~You can do this with yam, butternut squash, carrots, or a mixture of but sweet potato is the easiest to work with because of the added moisture.

~You can shape the pumpkin ahead of time and store them in the fridge and re-heat when you are serving, but don’t put the pea shoots on until ready to serve because they will wilt if you heat them.

posted by jessica at 08:52 AM

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