According to www.thepumpkinnook.com , which bills itself as “the internet shrine and library for pumpkins”, so therefore must be a reliable source…. Pumpkins were once used as a remedy for freckles, as a treatment for snake bite and as a preventative for prostate cancer. While I am clearly not about to recommend them for any of the above I am going to recommend them as a fabulous muffin ingredient.
Pumpkin & Feta Muffins (makes 12 muffins)
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 600g pumpkin – ¾ cut into 1cm dice, the remainder grated*
- 1 onion – finely chopped
- A handful of pumpkin seeds
- 100 grams feta crumbled
- ½ teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 tspns baking powder
- 1 egg – beaten
- 2/3 cup milk
- 50ml & 1 tblspn olive oil
- A knob of butter
Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease a 12 muffin tray. Mix the soy sauce with the tblspn of olive oil and use to coat the diced pumpkin. Roast the coated pumpkin for 20 minutes or until cooked. Allow to cool.
Turn oven up to 220 degrees.
Sweat the onions in the butter until translucent, when cooked add the grated pumpkin and stir for a minute. Allow to cool.
Toast the pumpkin seeds.
Sift the flour and baking powder then mix in egg, milk, ½ the roasted pumpkin, ½ the seeds, ½ the feta, all of the onion and grated pumpkin mixture, and the remaining olive oil. Spoon mixture into baking tray and top each muffin with remaining pumpkin, feta and seeds. Bake in a 220 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.
*If you’re pumpkin is a wetter variety you may wish to reduce the amount of grated pumpkin used as some people have found these muffins a little wet in texture using this amount of grated pumpkin. (See comments below).
Note: You could have a good play around with the above recipe by adding other ingredients; oregano and olives come mind but anything you enjoy eating with pumpkin could work. The other variation you could easily make is to the flour. I like a mix of wholemeal and white in savory muffins or you could try any of your favourite flours in the above recipe.
For another great pumpkin recipe click here: http://suburbantomato.com/2011/05/pumpkin-everyday-soup
Very tasty but found them to be a little wet, maybe less pumpkin and olive oil would help.
That’s interesting, I’m glad you found them tasty. I’m wondering if the wet texture relates to the type of pumpkin. I usually make these with quite a dry fleshed pumpkin and with a wetter one you’re right you probably would want to use less pumpkin, particularly less grated pumpkin. Thanks for the feedback I will make a note in the recipe.