Originally published October 31 2005
Columnist shares healthy pumpkin recipes
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The pumpkin is an amazing member of the berry family, and its many food possibilities extend between seeds and pies, including pumpkin smoothies, stew, cakes and muffins.
A pumpkin is, of all things, a berry.
Granted, it's a really big berry -- a buxom orange matron that emerges from the dwindling foliage like a fantasy of what any berry could be if it only tried.
We're more likely to consider the pumpkin a burly vegetable, just another of Mother Nature's tricks.
After all, it speaks to a certain sturdiness of purpose.
Seeds dating back 9,000 years have been found in Central America, a sign that pumpkins were a mainstay of American cuisine long before the Old World dropped anchor.
And for all we've been told about Squanto teaching the Pilgrims to plant corn, his real genius was in planting pumpkins between the rows to keep down the weeds.
Pumpkins have a way of inspiring such ingenuity.
Pumpkins are health foods, low in calories, high in fiber.
Pumpkin seed oil, long lauded as a folk medicine, is becoming more available as a terrific source of Omega-3 and Omega-6 essential fatty acids -- a boon for urinary tracts, prostate glands and smoother skin.
It also makes a great salad dressing.
Pie is pumpkin at its most evolved, but its flavor and texture also work well in stews, risotto, bars, cakes and muffins.
Boost your pleasure -- and your vitamin A -- with some grilled vegetable kebobs that feature chunks of fresh pumpkin threaded with peppers and onions.
Peel and cut a small sugar pumpkin into 1-inch chunks and microwave with a few spoons of water for 30 seconds before skewering.
Here's another pie recipe -- but these eggless, dairyless Half Moon Pie Pockets could find their way into a school lunch bag.
Which gives you more time to build that catapult.
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