Squash season is upon us! Butternut, acorn, spaghetti, pumpkin, I can’t get enough! I grew up eating roasted acorn and butternut squash with butter and brown sugar, and I’ve dabbled with the versatile spaghetti squash. When it comes to whole pumpkins, until now I’ve only ever used the seeds. But this year, instead of carving my pumpkin, I decided to roast it! There are so many different dishes you can make with roasted pumpkin, and you get enough flesh from one for at least two meals! I divided the pumpkin into two different containers, and froze one so I could use it at a later time. So keep a look out for more pumpkin recipes in the future!

This recipe is vegan, and can easily be gluten free with gluten free pasta. While it is vegan, the combination of the coconut milk and pureed pumpkin give it a delightful rich and creamy mouthfeel. You won’t be missing that dairy! (Though if you want to be a little naughty adding some parmesan cheese as garnish would probably go nicely.) In order to add a bit of texture to this dish, I toasted some pine nuts to sprinkle over top. The toasty flavor and slight crunch brought the dish to a whole new level! You can also garnish with some green onion, or parsley.

This recipe makes a large amount of sauce, so feel free to half it. You’ll just have to be careful with the coconut milk, as the high fat content will separate the sauce if there is too much. If you notice that the sauce looks almost grainy, that means there is too much fat. You can fix it by upping the amount of pumpkin.

Ingredients

4 C pumpkin (I roasted my own, but you can use canned if you prefer)

1 can coconut milk

1/2 C apple juice

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 cloves of garlic

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp salt

Pepper to taste

1/2 C pine nuts (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 170 C or 350 F. Place pine nuts on baking sheet and toast until a medium brown color. About 10 minutes.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine all ingredients besides the pine nuts. If you have an immersion blender you can put the ingredients directly in a medium sized saucepan. Blend until smooth.

Transfer sauce to a saucepan and put over medium heat until hot. Be sure to stir frequently to prevent scorching.

Serve immediately with Fettuccine and desired garnishes!