How to cleanse a pumpkin from the inside while leaving the body. How to peel a pumpkin. Peeling can be done in several ways.

Pumpkin has many uses, you just need to know how to clean the pumpkin correctly. It is not only tasty, but also healthy. You can make desserts from it, add it to porridge, eat it raw. The list of pumpkin dishes is huge. In addition to the usual pumpkin pie and porridge, there is pumpkin marmalade, pumpkin salad, and even pumpkin dumplings. Pumpkin and dishes from it can be enjoyed all year round, because pumpkin is easy to store in the freezer, after peeling and cutting into pieces.

However, the peel of the pumpkin is very tough, which makes peeling it difficult and, in the eyes of an inexperienced person, an impossible task. The skin of a young vegetable can still be handled somewhat with a knife or peeler. But if the pumpkin had time to lie down, then it will no longer be possible to cope with its peel so easily.

How to clean a pumpkin? In fact, peeling a stiff skin even from an old pumpkin is not that difficult. To do this, you will need a large knife, a small knife or peeler, a chopping board, preferably wooden, and a microwave oven.

Before cleaning the pumpkin, wash it in running water and dry it with a towel. Make several cuts in the peel with a thin knife or pierce it with a fork in several places. If the pumpkin is large and does not fit in the microwave as a whole, then cut it in half with a large knife (a chopping knife is ideal for this purpose). Scrape the seeds from both sides with a spoon. Place the halves in the microwave. Turn it on at full power for two to three minutes. After that, the pumpkin skin will soften and it will be very easy to peel it with a small knife or vegetable peeler. And after the pumpkin is peeled, you can immediately use it to prepare various dishes. If you plan to store the pumpkin in the freezer, then cut the peeled halves into slices like a watermelon, wrap with cling film and freeze. So the pumpkin can be stored all year round.

If you don't have a microwave, you can use the oven before cleaning the pumpkin. After lining the baking sheet with foil, place the slices of vegetable on top of it, cut down, and place the baking sheet in the oven. A pumpkin weighing one to two kilograms can be kept in the oven for 10 minutes. The larger it is, the longer its peel softens, therefore, for larger fruits, the peel will soften only when they spend 15-20 minutes in the oven. Once the pumpkin skin is soft, it can be cut from the pulp in the same way as in the previous case when the microwave was used to soften the skin. Just do not overdo it and do not keep the pumpkin in the oven for too long, because then you will not get a vegetable with softened peel at the output, but a baked pumpkin, and this is a completely different story ...

A ripe pot-bellied pumpkin is a sign of the coming autumn. Orange fruits with a thick peel are stored intact for a long time, and some varieties ripen while lying in a warm place.

When it comes to cooking, the question may be how to peel the pumpkin. She has a dense and tough skin. If the vegetable is lying down a little, then the crust dries up.

If you are inexperienced, it is easy to cut not only the pumpkin, but also your own fingers. Fortunately, there are easy, affordable ways to get a peeled pumpkin hassle-free.

Heat treatment

This is the easiest and safest way. The point is for the pumpkin pulp to release moisture and steam.

1. Microwave... Cut the pumpkin in half or into large pieces. Use a tablespoon to remove the fibrous core with seeds. Place as many pumpkins as you want to cook in a sturdy freezer bag. Press down on the open end, but don't tie it so it won't puff. Bake the pumpkin at maximum power for 6-9 minutes.
2. Oven... Set the temperature to 180º. While the oven is heating, cut and peel the fruit. Then put the pumpkin in a roasting sleeve, place it on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

The pumpkin will darken slightly and soften. It is easy to remove with a spoon. The consistency will resemble mashed potatoes.

Knife

Whatever the knife is, it must be sharp and large. Leave the small knives to cut the pulp. In this case, housewives pay attention to a saw-knife, but not a bread knife, but a large chef's. Sharp teeth prevent the blade from sliding off, smoothly and quickly cope with the task. It is important that the fruit does not slide on the table.

1. Place it on a wooden board or towel.
2. Cut the fruit in half and select the fibers with a tablespoon. There are two convenient ways to peel a pumpkin.
3. Flip the vegetable over and cut into wedges. Then lay each slice flat and cut the peel. The pulp will remain, which is convenient to cut into cubes.
4. If large chunks of pumpkin are needed, it is easy to peel whole. Place the fruit on the cut and peel the skin from top to bottom, like a potato.

Storage methods and periods

A whole hard pumpkin can be stored warm for 3 months. Soft dark spots that appear will tell you that it's time to cook it.

If there is nowhere to store, then peel the pumpkin, cut into cubes and send to the freezer. Leave the cooked slices at room temperature overnight before freezing. They will dry out and will retain their shape when thawed. In this form, the vegetable is stored for six months without loss of quality. Pureed frozen pumpkin is edible for 3-4 months.

You can freeze even in a package, even in a container. If you need portioned pieces, then plastic cups and silicone molds will do.

The cut pumpkin is in the refrigerator for 10 days. If it is in the form of puree, after heat treatment, then try to use it within 5 days.

The pumpkin has a lot of advantages. Her and sweet, like children and allowed for complementary foods from six months of age.

Pumpkin is the queen of autumn. The melon plant is rich in vitamins and minerals. It is considered a valuable fruit for making culinary masterpieces. Softness and unique taste will add originality to any dish. You have to spend a lot of time preparing the pumpkin, which is unacceptable for most housewives. Several methods have appeared to help cope with the problem and speed up the process.

Training

At the beginning of the work, you will need to follow several rules:

• Examine the fetus visually. It should be undamaged, with a healthy look and pleasant aroma.
• First, rinse the fruit with running water, remove dust and dirt.
• Use a wide knife to cut off the top and bottom.
• Cut in half from top to bottom.
• Use a tablespoon to scoop out the seeds and fibrous pulp.

If the fruit is giant, divide it into four pieces.

The fastest way

A common way is to remove the skin with a knife. Divide the prepared fruit into small wedges. Use a sharpened knife to cut off the peel. The method is ineffective if the skin is thick.

Non-standard ways

Microwave

Heat treatment will soften the skin.

1. Wash and dry the pumpkin. If it is large, cut it in half.
2. Make several deep punctures with a long knife.
3. Send to microwave oven at maximum power level.
4. Start cleaning after a few minutes.

Oven

If you don't have a microwave, you can use an oven. Heat treatment will make the peel soft and pliable, making peeling easier:

1. Wash, dry.
2. Cut the large one into several parts.
3. Make punctures in each piece with a knife.
4. Put on a baking sheet, put in the oven for 10 minutes at a temperature not exceeding 200 degrees.
5. At the end of the time, remove from the oven, cool, start peeling.

Peeler

Cooks remove the skin with a vegetable peeler - this is a great assistant in the kitchen. The device helps to quickly peel off the skin.

Grater

The grater will cope with the task, but only after heat treatment.

Video Tips

A step-by-step plan for cleaning and carving a pumpkin for Halloween

The melon fruit is popular on October 30; decorative objects are cut out of it for the holiday. Here are the rules to follow.

1. Find the right shape. A round, medium pumpkin will do. You will need a marker, a short knife, a candle.
2. Wash, dry, treat pumpkin with alcohol.
3. With a marker, outline the future holes of the pumpkin lantern.
4. Cut out the eyes and mouth along the lines. Make sure not to burst.
5. Cut off the top, remove the pulp.
6. Place the candle inside, light it.

The result is an excellent Jack-Lantern that will become the main attribute of the holiday of All Saints Day.

Video plot

Note to housewives

• Connoisseurs of the vegetable should remember that it can be stored in the refrigerator. Place in a bag and place in the freezer.
• Peeled and chopped vegetables are stored at zero temperature for no more than a week.
• Melons are unpretentious, in a cool dark place will survive the whole winter. In the fall, you can stock up on and pamper yourself during the cold weather with delicious healthy dishes.
• Pumpkin juice is a natural hypnotic and antioxidant, and the pulp can relieve burn pain.
• It contains many minerals and vitamins. Thanks to its impressive amount of iron, it helps in the fight against anemia.

Vitamins and minerals in the pulp:

How to choose a pumpkin

To prepare a pumpkin dish, you need to choose the right vegetable. Color, taste, aroma depend on the quality of the main component. There are no more than twenty varieties.

• A medium-sized round gourd will do.
• The weight should not exceed 5 kilograms.
• The peel should be firm, without spots, and the flesh should be bright and firm.
• The ponytail must be dry.

If you adhere to these rules, you will be able to please your loved ones and guests with a delicious treat. It will be fragrant, beautiful, bright.

The pumpkin has more than 5 thousand years of history. It was eaten by the ancient Indians who lived in South and Central America. In Russia, this fruit appeared in the distant 16th century. The composition of pumpkin includes vitamins of groups A, C, E, B, PP, trace elements, pectin, fiber. It is useful to eat it for children, pregnant women, the elderly, and indeed for all people. Today we will tell you how to clean the pumpkin correctly, how to get rid of the tough skin of the pumpkin, how to easily peel the seeds and why you need to do it at all.

The pumpkin is rightfully considered by the people to be the true queen of autumn. Delicious and healthy cereals, mashed potatoes, salads, pie fillings and other dishes are prepared from it. There are many varieties of this culture, among which nutmeg, hardy and large-fruited pumpkins are most often grown.

Many housewives are wondering whether it is necessary to rid the pumpkin from the peel before cooking? Much depends on the choice of the dish you are planning to cook. Therefore, the pumpkin useful product is not always cleaned from the top layer. For example, if you want to bake a vegetable in the oven with slices, sprinkle with sugar or water with syrup. And you can without it - stew on a baking sheet with the addition of a small amount of water or grind it on a grater beforehand. Some get creative by cooking in the pumpkin. This also eliminates the need to peel the pumpkin first.

Basic peeling options

Having chosen the fruit of the variety you like, you should prepare for its cleaning, if the need arises. You need to start work by choosing a suitable fruit. It must be cleaned of adhering dirt, foliage, and so on. Then rinse thoroughly under running water. Wipe dry with a paper towel or towel and set aside to dry completely. You also need to think about whether you plan to cut the whole vegetable, and where to store the excess in case of anything.

How do you clean the top layer of your chosen fruit? There are two proven ways. When choosing the first one, you need to have a microwave oven, a wooden chopping board, and larger and smaller knives at home. First, punctures and cuts should be made on the surface of the peel in several places at once. If a large specimen is caught, you may need to cut it in half. Next, we clean the seeds inside, after which the vegetable can be placed in the microwave, turn it on at full power and after a few minutes get the pumpkin. All that remains is to pick up the edge of the softened peel with a knife to easily remove it from the fruit.

Really do without a microwave oven. When choosing the second method, you will need to place the dried vegetable halves, cut down on a baking sheet. Then they are sent to the oven for 10–20 minutes. The main thing is not to overexpose the product in the oven, so as not to get a baked vegetable. When you remove the halves of the fruit from the oven, you can easily remove the top layer using the same knife.

How to remove seeds

Another important point is the removal of seeds from the middle of the vegetable, since it is unlikely that you will be able to cook a tasty dish with them. To get the inside peeled pumpkin parts, you need to cut the selected instance in half. Then, using a spoon, scrape the seeds from the vegetable parts along with the orange pulp fragments and place on a plate. Then you can continue cooking the fruit dish. If you plan to use seeds, then they are laid out in a sieve, washed, put on a board and rolled over them with a rolling pin. Then it is poured into a saucepan with boiling water, boiled for 5 minutes, thrown into a colander, dried and peeled.

Each housewife has her own secrets that will help make the process of peeling a vegetable faster and easier. Before placing the fruit in the microwave, it is better to pierce it in several places. A large specimen must be cut in half. If the fruit is placed in the oven, you need to control so that the pulp does not bake at the same time as the skin.

If there are pieces of vegetable left that were not used in the cooking process, it is permissible to store them in the refrigerator, but not longer than 1 week.

They are advised to be folded in a bag and placed in the freezer. Remember that those parts of the culture that have undergone heat treatment cannot be stored as much as fresh ones. Leftover baked pumpkin can be mashed up and stored in the freezer. They can later be added to cooking dishes - soups, cereals, and others. If there is neither a microwave nor an oven in the house yet, it is recommended to use a saw knife to clean the vegetable. Since it will be very problematic to remove the non-softened upper shell with another tool.

Video "How to deal with pumpkin skins"

In this video, you will learn how to properly peel a tough pumpkin skin.

There are many techniques for cleaning a pumpkin. Some of them allow you to eliminate the skin with minimal damage to the pulp. Others are aimed at removing seeds from virtually whole fruit. Still others take a minimum of time and are not a hassle. The fact which variety of vegetable has to be processed is also important, because pumpkins are large and small, differ in shape, thickness of the peel, and the size of the seed compartment.

Preparing a vegetable for processing

Regardless of the type of fruit and its purpose, the preparation is the same in all cases. It involves performing the following manipulations:

1. We clean the surface of the pumpkin from dirt and leaves. We rinse thoroughly under the tap, rubbing with a sponge or cloth. There is no need to soak the fruit, it may lose its purity of taste, and in some varieties the peel is very softened, after which it is difficult to peel the fruit without damaging the pulp.
2. Be sure to wipe the surface with cloth or paper napkins. We are waiting for the pumpkin to dry completely.
3. We prepare the necessary tools for cleaning vegetables, containers for storing seeds (especially if they are planned to be dried), peel and pulp.

If small decay points are visible on the surface of the peel, it is recommended to cut them out in advance (even at the stage of removing the leaves). Otherwise, pathogenic microorganisms will get on the pulp during cleaning. In cases where the lesions are impressive, and their removal leads to the fact that you have to get to the core, the holes formed do not need to be plugged. Just wash the surface of the pumpkin very carefully.

How to quickly and efficiently remove the peel?

You can use the simplest method to peel a pumpkin. We cut the product into two parts, remove the seeds with a spoon or a special spatula. Next, we divide the fruit into several oblong strips or pieces, each of which is separately peeled from the skin. We cut the resulting pieces of pulp as needed according to the recipe.

Tip: The delicate pumpkin pulp is easy to crush with your fingers while holding it in your hands, which will change the structure of the product. To prevent this from happening, we spread the strips or pieces of vegetable with the peel on the table, take a very sharp knife and separate the pulp from the substrate, and not vice versa.

If you just need to cut the pumpkin for further storage or save its pulp in the form of large pieces, this method will not work. In this case, it is best to cleanse the fruit as follows:

• We take a previously prepared pumpkin, cut off two centimeters of bark with pulp from each pole of the fruit. These pieces can be thrown away.
• Next, we remove the seeds so that they do not fall out during the subsequent cleaning. To do this, you can use a spoon, preferably a wooden one with a long handle. Manual cleaning is also allowed, it is even more effective.
• We place the peeled workpiece on a cutting board, placing it on one of the poles so that the vegetable does not stagger or slip. We take a vegetable knife or a potato peeler and use it to peel the fruit, removing thin strips of the peel.

The disadvantage of the latter approach is that sometimes it is impossible to get to the pulp quickly. If the bark is very thick, you will have to spend a lot of time removing it completely. But, if the fruit was very fresh, with a thin skin, the manipulation will take literally a few minutes, after which it remains to cut the pulp as needed. An additional plus of the technique is that this way it is possible to save most of the pulp.

We clean the fruit from seeds

If the dish involves filling the pumpkin and baking it to its full size, without cutting, then the skin is usually not removed. But in this case, you have to decide how to cleanse the fruit from the inside. This is usually done as follows:

1. A cap is cut from the pole with the stalk, which allows access to the inner chamber of the pumpkin. There is no need to save product here. Due to the high location of the cut, the hole will be too narrow, it will be inconvenient to clean and fill the camera. The lid also needs to be cleaned - it often contains seeds or unnecessary fibers.
2. Next, we take a rounded spoon with a long handle and begin to clean out the cavity of the pumpkin. In the process of manipulation, you cannot press on the walls of the vegetable, they can crack, you cannot press hard with a spoon, so you can clean not only the seeds, but also the pulp.
3. If the vegetable was very juicy, then after such an impact, a lot of liquid can accumulate on its bottom. It is recommended to get it wet, especially if there is no intention of spreading the filling right now.

Peeled pumpkin for cooking does not need to be refrigerated. Better to wrap it with cling film or just put it closer to the cold. But if there are no plans to cook something from pumpkin in the near future, it is recommended to cut the peeled product into pieces and freeze it in a quick way. Pumpkin pulp does not need to be sprinkled with salt or other tricks, it will lie in the freezer for several months without it, and this will not help it in the refrigerator.