Twice baked pumpkin with turkey melt

Pumpkin is a member of the squash family and there is nutritional info within my other blog post.
There doesn't seem to be many varied recipes for pumpkin other than pumpkin soup and pumpkin pie.
My recipe is a tasty different way to serve this flavoursome veg in season used now particularly for Halloween lanterns.


Prepare:


Preheat a slow cooker on high whist preparing the pumpkin.
Scrub a small pumpkin really well to remove any debris and use a sharp large knife to cut it in half. Scoop out the seeds and reserve them for roasting another day. Scoop out and discard any pulpy flesh.
Cut each quarter into 4 sections removing and discarding the hard stem.
Arrange the pumpkin firstly around the sides of the slow cooker then fill in the middle sprinkling with cayenne pepper and dot with 1tbsp milk and 1oz butter.
Cook for 2 hours until the flesh and peel is soft when prodded with a knife. Allow to cool then put in the firdge until next day for your meal.


Next day:
Per person:
Preheat the oven to 180 fan / 200C for 10 minutes.


Use half the pumpkin and separate the cooked flesh from the peel and layer the pumpkin flesh into an 8" round casserole. Use a knife to roughly chop the pumpkin and cover the bottom of the casserole pressing in with a fork. Sprinkle with salt / pepper.


Top. tail and rinse 4 green beans, cut in half and press into the pumpkin flesh.


Rinse 1 broccoli floret and thinly slice and press into the pumpkin flesh.


Drain a small can of white kidney beans and press evenly into the pumpkin flesh.


Drizzle over with some olive oil. and freshly grind some mixed red, black and white peppers over from a pepper mill.


Use one eighth portion from a red and yellow bell pepper and finely dice, sprinkle with a little oil. Put the peppers into a small casserole big enough to hold a turkey steak portion and place the steak on top of the peppers.


Top the steak with 2 tsp single cream and thinly sliced feta cheese or other cheese of your choice then freshly grind some mixed red, black and white peppers from a pepper mill.


Place both baking dishes into the hot oven and bake for 20 minutes. Serve in the first baking dish with the turkey steak as the topping drizzling the juice from the steak baking dish all over the food.


The pumpkin peel can either be an ingredient for a stir fry or baked in a hot oven for crispy pumpkin skins (recipe to follow).