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Gluten-Free & Wheat-Free
Baked Pumpkin — Super Healthy! Recipe
GF Recipe Summary
Gluten-Free Baked Pumpkin — Super Healthy!: A simple to make Baked Pumpkin recipe that will serve as the foundation for many other pumpkin-based and pumpkin-accented recipes.
The Baked-Pumpkin (or Cooked/Microwaved Pumpkin) Recipe is quite simply, about as healthy of a gluten-free food as you can find. It has an incredibly low glycemic-index, it is full of essential vitamins, protein, and nutrients, plus it delivers a nice dose of your daily fiber requirements — all with a mild taste that is easily accented (as it is in pumpkin pie and other dishes).
Gluten-Free Recipe Card and Pictures
- Simply take your pumpkin-pie pumpkin and split it vertically in half (from the stem at the top, to the center point at the bottom.
- Scoop out all the seeds and loose fibers in the middle of each pumpkin half.
- In an oven-safe pan or pyrex dish an inch or two deep and large enough to hold the two halves of the pumpkin, place ½" of warm tap water.
- Now, invert the pumpkin halves in the water (i.e., center of pumpkin facing down in pan);
- Place in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes — when ready, a fork or knife should easily slide through the pumpkin.
- Remove from oven.
- Carefully (remember, this pumpkin is hot!) use a spoon to scrape the fleshy inside of the pumpkin away from the very thin rind, and place this onto serving plates or into a bowl for serving.
- Suggested topping: upon serving, sprinkle a bit of cinnamon over each portion served, and perhaps a bit of granulated Splenda (or sugar / brown-sugar if you don't mind the calories or don't watch your sugar intake).
With the baked pumpkin being so mild on its own, the slight accent of cinnamon and a sweetener should remind you just a bit of a pumpkin pie. And, when it comes to health, you can't get much better than the nutrition of cooked pumpkin (check out that link, it is a really useful nutritional analysis site), which for every half-pound of cooked / baked pumpkin yields:
- only 50 calories per ¼ Kilogram (half-pound) serving — the entire prepared pumpkin likely won't exceed 150 calories, and it is quite filling
- nearly 250% of your RDA of Vitamin-A, much of that as Beta-Carotene
- nearly 3 grams of fiber
- essentially zero sodium
- roughly 20% of RDA of Vitamin-C
- a bit of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids
- about 8% of your Iron, and 4% of your daily Calcium recommendations
- A super-low glycemic-Load of only 4 (in a range that goes up to 75 or 80)!
Authors Comments
Mike: Hopefully you'll enjoy the pumpkin for both its taste and it's health benefits! I know I sure like these little pumpkins prepared as I detailed above, and I am so glad they are safe for Celiac Disease and Gluten-Free people too.
In addition, this same approach works with various squash varieties, like these lovely and colorful Turbin Squash:
and Carnival Squash: 
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