As the seasons change, so do the ingredients that appear on our menus. Autumn is a time for warming soups, hearty stews, and glorious roasted root veggies. And with Halloween just around the corner, now’s the time to start getting creative with these ingredients…especially pumpkin!

Pumpkin is a wonderful vegetable because it can be used to create both savoury and sweet dishes, from sticky pumpkin pie to creamy pumpkin soup.

Throughout the winter months, October especially, pumpkins are available in their abundance – although these days the pulp can be bought in tins all year round. However, if you buy them fresh, there is so much more you can do with them, including a variety of cooking techniques – charring them on a flame or cooking over a BBQ creates a wonderful flavour.

The excitement is already building for Halloween, so it’s the perfect time to add a few ‘Halloween treats’ to your menu. Dishes like soup, pies, pasta, scones and cakes can stay throughout the season but there’s nothing to stop you from giving them a ’spooky’ edge for Halloween. This can be done through decoration, with spiders, witches, and ghosts, or even giving a ‘gruesome’ twist to some of the meal names – probably best kept for the children’s menu.

To get you started, here are a few delicious recipes using pumpkin: