8 Healthy Pumpkin Recipes

Packed with vitamin A, pumpkins are good for more than carving, and it's time to expand your palate beyond pumpkin pie. They’re absolutely delicious in any of these 8 healthy recipes.

Nutrition Lowdown

Both fresh and canned pumpkins are packed with nutritional goodness. Oftentimes, recipes will use the canned pumpkin since it takes a little work to use fresh. If you choose canned pumpkin, make sure to purchase 100% pureed pumpkin, not pie filling (check the ingredient list).

One cup of canned pumpkin has 83 calories, 1 gram of fat and 7 grams of fiber. It also has close to 800% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin A, 49% of the daily recommended amount of vitamin K and 19% of your daily recommended amount of iron. It also has a good amount of vitamins E and C, pantothenic acid, magnesium, potassium, copper and manganese.

1. Creamy Risotto

This recipe uses a combo of diced and pureed pumpkin. Combined with mascarpone and fresh Parmesan cheese, it’s heavenly.

2. Creamy Baked Pumpkin Risotto; Spiked Punch

Pureed pumpkin mixed with brown sugar, cinnamon and a splash of rum (for the adults) will help warm you up on a chilly night.

3. Mexican Pumpkin Punch Pudding

Although Halloween has passed, this pumpkin pudding is a fun treat to make with the kids.

4. Ghostly Pumpkin Pudding Pasta

This Rachel Ray pumpkin recipe is a must for all pumpkin lovers! Perfect for a weeknight family meal – total prep time is 30-minutes.

5. Penne-Wise Pumpkin Pasta Muffins

I recently made a batch of these muffins before hurricane Sandy hit my area. My kids gobbled them down before the adults could take a bite!

6. Pumpkin Muffins Soup

This simple soup can be whipped up in 20 minutes using canned pumpkin, milk, chicken broth and cumin.

7. Cumin Pumpkin Soup Bread

Alton uses freshly shredded pumpkin in this recipe which can make bread or mini muffins.

Recipe: Pumpkin Bread Flan

Ellie’s spin on this traditional favorite has only 100 calories per serving.