Pumpkin, Jap

A heavy, plump pumpkin makes us dream of mum’s roast, winter soup, and American desserts. Yes, it is a fruit but we’ll keep to culinary standards. This squash relative does count to your daily vege intake. There’s loads of nutrition like fibre, potassium, beta-carotene and inflammation-fighting antioxidants in pumpkin. Japanese, or Kent pumpkins are very sweet and a bit nutty in taste.

• Fresh all year but best in March through to August. 
• Good for roasting, boiling, baking, grilling.
• Store in fridge crisper in air tight container for 1 week, but eat ASAP!

Top Tip
When cooked, pumpkin is quite sweet (higher GI index). If you follow ‘FODMAPs’ you’ll know the type of pumpkin and serving size matters. Butternut pumpkin is only low FODMAP in a 1/3 cup serve, but you can eat a lot more of this Japanese variety.

Did you know? We can’t believe the heaviest pumpkin in Australia was well over 700kg!