8 Healthy Pumpkin Recipes | Healthy Eats – Food Network Healthy Living Blog

8 Healthy Pumpkin Recipes by Toby Amidor in Healthy Recipes, In Season, November 7, 2012

Packed with vitamin A, pumpkins are good for more than carving, and it’s time to expand your palate beyond pumpkin pie. They’re absolutely delicious in any of these 8 healthy recipes.

Nutrition Lowdown
Both fresh and canned pumpkins are packed with nutritional goodness. Oftentimes, recipes will use the canned pumpkin since it takes a little work to use fresh. If you choose canned pumpkin, make sure to purchase 100% pureed pumpkin, not pie filling (check the ingredient list).

One cup of canned pumpkin has 83 calories, 1 gram of fat and 7 grams of fiber. It also has close to 800% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin A, 49% of the daily recommended amount of vitamin K and 19% of your daily recommended amount of iron. It also has a good amount of vitamins E and C, pantothenic acid, magnesium, potassium, copper and manganese.

Creamy Risotto
This recipe uses a combo of diced and pureed pumpkin. Combined with mascarpone and fresh Parmesan cheese, it’s heavenly.

Recipe: Creamy Baked Pumpkin Risotto (above)

Spiked Punch
Pureed pumpkin mixed with brown sugar, cinnamon and a splash of rum (for the adults) will help warm you up on a chilly night.

Recipe: Mexican Pumpkin Punch

Pudding
Although Halloween has passed, this pumpkin pudding is a fun treat to make with the kids.

Recipe: Ghostly Pumpkin Pudding

Pasta
This Rachel Ray pumpkin recipe is a must for all pumpkin lovers! Perfect for a weeknight family meal – total prep time is 30-minutes.

Recipe: Penne-Wise Pumpkin Pasta

Muffins
I recently made a batch of these muffins before hurricane Sandy hit my area. My kids gobbled them down before the adults could take a bite!

Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins

Soup
This simple soup can be whipped up in 20 minutes using canned pumpkin, milk, chicken broth and cumin.

Recipe: Cumin Pumpkin Soup

Bread
Alton uses freshly shredded pumpkin in this recipe which can make bread or mini muffins.

Recipe: Pumpkin Bread

Flan
Ellie’s spin on this traditional favorite has only 100 calories per serving.

Recipe: Pumpkin Flan