YUMMY FOCUS
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ased in Nairobi, Everything Pumpkin is a food company dedicated to offering an exciting culinary experience. We do this through a range of products made from fresh, locally sourced pumpkins. We have a delectable pastry selection with everything from cinnamon rolls to gluten-free loaves, pumpkin scones, and pumpkin pies. We also feature savoury products such as our signature pumpkin curry dip, which is a fan favorite. Everything Pumpkin started a year ago after a big pumfavouritepkin harvest. Our test kitchen lead comes from a farm in Kitale and her dad generously distributed the pumpkins to friends and family. We didn’t want any pumpkins to go bad and thought - why not have a pumpkin-themed party and game-night to use up the pumpkins? We invited a few friends and made pumpkin soup, cocktails, and cookies, which were all a hit! The next morning, we woke up giddy and thought - Pumpkin Everything? Everything Pumpkin! Let’s play! WHY PUMPKIN? Why not Pumpkin?! There is a reason we feed even children pumpkins! They are highly nutritious but are an often-overlooked super fruit. Pumpkins are packed with vitamins, (including beta carotene that your body needs to manufacture Vitamin A), potassium (linked to proper heart and muscle function), and antioxidants (which help to bolster the immune system). Furthermore, the high-fiber flesh from pumpkins can keep your belly full while keeping calories low. Unfortunately, many people growing up in Kenya have unpleasant (often childhood) experiences with pumpkins. They were either cooked poorly and/or the pumpkins that were used were watery with an unforgivably flat flavor or stringy texture. If you were brought up in the west, perhaps pumpkins evoke happy memories of fall and the seasonal holidays associated with that - Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Otherwise, you’re probably a local who cannot bear the thought of eating pumpkins but will happily pass on the ritual pumpkin feedings to your children. Regardless of your background and history with pumpkins, we are confident that you can enjoy a trauma-free pumpkin culinary experience with Everything Pumpkin! The first step is getting the right kinds of pumpkin - it’s the base for most of our recipes, after all. We’ve found that the
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EVERYTHING PUMPKIN best cooking pumpkins are smaller, dense for their size, and will have bits of both green and orange/yellow on the outside. We’ve written more about ‘how to find your perfect pumpkin’ on our blog and you can find more tips there. Pumpkins will either get watery or acquire an unpleasant rubbery texture if over-cooked. You want to boil them in a pot filled quarter to halfway with water just until a fork can easily go through the flesh. This can take up to 40mins depending on the size of your pot. Be sure to drain the water shortly thereafter (or save it for vegetable stock!) We also typically boil our pumpkins with the skin on - it’s much easier to peel them after boiling than when they are raw. Fun fact though - pumpkin peels are totally edible! We would equate our pumpkin journey to the scene in Cinderella where the fairy godmother waves her magic wand and this forgotten fruit magically becomes a
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