Tip Tuesday #8- Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Fall is the time to enjoy all those yummy pumpkin dishes. But you need pumpkin puree right? So you go to your local supermarket and pick up a few cans of pumpkin. Super simple.
Eh… not for me! We live outside the U.S. right now and finding some of my favorite products, like canned pumpkin, does not come easy. Even if I do locate them in some specialty store it is more than double the price. I still need to buy my kids clothing! C’mon! 🙂

So just like I make my own greek yogurt (yup, also hard to find here), I make my own pumpkin puree. It really is very simple to do and after it’s all done I get more than just 1 measly can. Do you wanna know what I get? Really? It’s almost too good to be true. But please believe me, I don’t lie- usually.

I went to the store and bought a ton of pumpkin. Here they sell pre-cut pieces of pumpkin with the skin on that was cut from a huge pumpkin. I took 4 of these huge chunks. I actually bought the last ones!
After making the puree and measuring them out I got 6 cans worth plus another 1/2 cup of puree. Each can has 1 3/4 cups of puree in them. So that’s 11 cups of puree.

Now how much was this all? Well if I were to buy 1 can it would come out to around 2-3 dollars in the U.S. Here it’s double that. I spent $4 on all the pumpkin I bought! It comes out to around 60 cents for a can of my homemade pumpkin! Now if that’s not a deal I don’t know what is.

Moral of the story? Making your own canned pumpkin is super simple and pocket friendly. Which makes it perfect for those of us who can’t find canned pumpkin or even those of us who can, but rather save the money for something else. This is also made without any preservatives that they put in those cans. Why wouldn’t you make this on your own!?
Now that you heard me talk about how great this is, it may be time to show you how to actually make it.
Here you go!

Homemade Pumpkin Puree


Cut your pumpkin and remove the seeds. Place them on a baking paper lined baking sheet and bake uncovered at 350F for about 45 minutes till a fork can easily go through it.

The puree may be more liquidy than your average can version so I suggest either letting the chunks of cooked pumpkin sit in a pasta strainer for about 30 minutes to let out some liquid or the other version that I did is to place it in a cloth and squeeze out some of the liquid after its been pureed.

All you have to do next is measure out the amount you’d like and place it in a ziplock bag. Squeeze out all the air and seal closed. Place in your freezer for later use.

After this is done you can now enjoy opening your freezer and taking a peak at all the pumpkin ready to go for some awesome fall recipes.

Don’t know what to do with the pumpkin? I got you covered! Great recipe coming up…