While canned pumpkin purée can easily be found in various supermarkets during the fall season, you’ll get more delicious results in your baked goods by using homemade pumpkin purée.
Whether you’re making pumpkin muffins or pumpkin pie, most pumpkin recipes require the use of pumpkin purée. Not to be confused with pumpkin pie filling, the purée is simply just pumpkin flesh blended into purée form.
Traditionally, pumpkin purée has been made in the oven, cooked at a low temperature for an extended period of time. Thanks to the Instant Pot®, however, you can now make pumpkin purée in just about 20 minutes with no fuss at all.
To make pumpkin purée in the Instant Pot®, you’ll need to use a pie pumpkin, which is smaller than the kind of pumpkin you might put outside your door for fall decorations. This type of pumpkin is typically under 3 pounds and will fit inside your pot.
To the pot, you’ll add just a bit of water to cook the pumpkin in, then set the pressure cooker to 13 minutes. The pumpkin will cook until it’s incredibly tender and pretty much falling apart.
At that point, it becomes very easy to remove the skin, stem, core, and seeds from the pumpkin with a gentle tug from your knife. The pumpkin flesh is then transferred to a food processor and blended with a little water to create a 100% natural pumpkin purée.
You can use the puréed pumpkin immediately in many fall pumpkin recipes, or you can store it in an airtight container in the freezer for up to six months.
Summary |
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Cook time: 13 minutes
Prep time: 10 minutes
Idle time:
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Level
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Servings:
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Ingredients
- 1 pie pumpkin
- 1 1/2 cups water for Instant Pot plus more for purée
Instructions
- Open up the Instant Pot and place the trivet that came with it inside. Pour the 1 1/2 cups of water into the pot.
- Place the pie pumpkin inside the pot, then secure the pot's lid on top. Turn the nodule to sealing and cook the pumpkin on manual pressure for 13 minutes.
- Once the pumpkin has finished cooking, very carefully (using oven mitts) lift the trivet (with the pumpkin on it) out of the pot. Let the pumpkin slightly cool before handling.
- Cut the pumpkin in half and remove the stem, core, and seeds from the pumpkin. The skin should easily peel away from the pumpkin flesh.
- Transfer the pumpkin flesh to a food processor and add about 1/4 cup of water. Blend until puréed, adding a little more water at a time as needed to help the blending process. Store in the fridge for up to a week, or an airtight container in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Additional information
Recipe adapted from apinchofhealthy.com
