Since this was the view outside my trailer windows today, C & I decided to stay in and make ourselves something warm and wonderful to eat. Our baked pumpkin and millet pilaf creation was made from ingredients we already had, all of which (other than the Daiya cheese) could be grown and harvested here in Maple Ridge. The pumpkin was actually a 3 month old purchase from the local farmers market – squash store well!

We didn’t follow a recipe, but I’ll list the ingredients used. Since squash are such an easy vegetable to grow and store, experimenting with different ways of eating them is something we’d like to do more of. 

Ingredient list:

• 1 small pumpkin
• 1.5 C millet
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 onion
• 1 clove of (grown here on the farm) garlic
• 6 mushrooms
• cumin & tumeric to taste
• salt & pepper to taste
• daiya cheese sprinkled on top (another ‘cheesy’ option would be nutritional yeast)

Our process:

We cut the pumpkin in half and scooped out the seeds and stringy bits, then baked the two halves (placed upside down on a baking sheet) for about 45 mins at 375 F. While the pumpkin was baking we cooked the millet. It was my first time cooking millet and it’s super easy – a lot like cooking couscous. Toss the millet and water in a pot (1 C of millet requires 2 C of water), bring to boil, reduce and simmer till it has puffed up and absorbed all the water. We sauteed the veggies about 10 minutes before we were ready to eat (garlic and onion first, followed by mushrooms, carrots, peppers, and finally tomatoes), tossed in our spices and the millet, stirred it all together and scooped it onto our plates next to the straight-from-the-oven pumpkin. We topped it all off with some cheddar daiya cheese.

The pumpkin flesh fell away from the skin incredibly easily and the combination of flavors was seriously delicious. A great way to spend a very snowy day indoors and a big motivation to keep experimenting with squash and products that could easily be grown ourselves.