Is Pumpkin Good for You?
More than seasonal decor, pumpkin can be a nutritious fixture of your diet
Depending on where you live, the transition from summer to fall may be signaled by dropping temperatures, falling leaves, or the announcement of Starbucks’ new seasonal menu. For me, it’s all about pumpkins.
If your only familiarity with pumpkins is as a Halloween decoration or an ingredient in pie, you’re missing out. Like other winter squash, such as butternut or acorn, pumpkin contains an impressive array of nutrients. But coming face to face with a large, hard-shelled sphere in your kitchen can seem a little intimidating. We checked in with pumpkin-loving chefs to get the scoop on prepping pumpkin and how to use it—and why it’s worth the effort.
Pumpkin Types
Pumpkins have been cultivated since 3500 B.C.E. and while there are at least 200 varieties, each falls into one of two categories.
Pumpkin Nutrition
Botanically, pumpkins (and all squash) are fruits, not vegetables because they have seeds. From a nutritional and culinary standpoint though, consider them veggies.
While fresh pumpkin is available only in the fall, you can find canned pumpkin in stores year-round. Marisa Moore, RD, who is the author of “The Plant Love Kitchen” (NatGeo Books, 2023) and is based in Atlanta, extolls the value of both options as foods rich in beta-carotene and fiber. The former is both the pigment that gives pumpkin its iconic orange hue and an antioxidant that may help reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes, as well as benefit the eyes and skin.
By the numbers, a cup of cooked fresh pumpkin has just 49 calories, no fat or saturated fat, 12 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of natural sugars, and about 3 grams of fiber. You’ll also get some B vitamins, vitamin C, calcium, and potassium. But the star nutrient is vitamin A, which the body can make from beta-carotene—1 cup cooked supplies 78 percent of the Daily Value. A cup also has about 2 mg of lutein and zeaxanthin. Some experts recommend getting 5 to 10 mg a day of these yellow antioxidant pigments to promote eye health.
Every part of a pumpkin plant is edible and nutritious, including the leaves and seeds. Sautéed or boiled pumpkin leaves have decent amounts of iron, beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin as well as some vitamin C, potassium, calcium, and fiber. An ounce of pumpkin seeds has healthy fats, protein, fiber, iron, and magnesium—a mineral many people fall short on but is important for blood pressure control, heart health, and healthy sleep.
As for canned pumpkin, it might not really be pumpkin at all. The Food and Drug Administration permits canned pumpkin producers to use other golden squash instead to achieve their desired flavor and texture. In a confusing twist, they can still list 100 percent pumpkin as an ingredient. That can give canned some nutritional advantages, though, Moore says. One cup of canned pumpkin has more fiber (7 grams) than fresh and three times as much beta-carotene—enough to supply 212 percent of the Daily Value. It also delivers 18 percent of your daily iron needs. On the downside, you won’t get any lutein or zeaxanthin.
Pumpkin Around the World
Americans may think of pumpkin as the stuff of pie filling, but you can be inspired by the many food cultures around the world that regularly employ pumpkin in everything from breakfast dishes to desserts.
Compared with the other foods he recalls eating as a child, Los Angeles-born, Hong Kong- and Canada-raised chef Jon Kung remembers pumpkin as a not very exciting part of his childhood diet. Today the chef and author of the cookbook “Kung Food: Chinese American Recipes From a Third-Culture Kitchen” (Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed, 2023) is decidedly more excited about pumpkin.
“Oh my God, it is so good and so healthy,” Kung says. “The flavor-to-nutrition ratio—it is probably one of the most delicious and healthiest things that you can be consuming in any form.” His love of pumpkin is apparent on his social media feed, which features pumpkin as a central ingredient in Asian-inflected recipes from vegetarian breakfast broth to pumpkin miso soup to sweet sesame pumpkin toast. “So many different cultures have been using pumpkins in their cuisines, whether it be Chinese, South Asian, or the West Indies,” Kung says. “It doesn’t take much work to find unique and interesting recipes.” Kung shared a recipe for pumpkin miso soup with his 1.7 million TikTok followers that could be included in that number.
It is probably one of the most delicious and healthiest things that you can be consuming in any form.
Photo: Courtesy of Johnny Miller
Kaddu ki Sabz is a Northern Indian dish of cubed pumpkin with onion and/or tomato. (Kaddu is a Hindi word for pumpkin.) Its composition varies by region, but its simple preparation always calls for sautéing pumpkin in oil for about 3 minutes before seasoning it with aromatic spices like chili powder, turmeric, and garam masala. After being spiced, salted, and sautéed, a lid goes on the pan, the heat is turned down, and the pumpkin cooks until it’s tender. The pumpkin flavor intensifies because no water is added during cooking, but you can sprinkle in a few drops if the pumpkin begins to dry out. Finished with a squeeze of lime and served with rice, quinoa, or an Indian flatbread like roti, chapati, or naan, Kaddu ki Sabz makes a satisfying vegan main course or side dish.
But pumpkin is more than the sum of its good looks and nutritional profile.
In Haiti, pumpkins fill bellies and hearts. They symbolize pride in celebration of the world’s first independent Black republic’s triumph over French colonial rule. Colonists had forbidden enslaved Haitians from eating the rich aromatic pumpkin soup known as joumou. (“Joumou” means “pumpkin” in Haitian Creole.) In addition to pumpkin, it contains beef, potatoes, hot peppers, and other vegetables. With their liberty secured, the victorious Haitians celebrated by serving the ”Freedom Soup” to all. The tradition started Jan. 1, 1804, and continues to this day.
“Haitians around the world eat soup joumou as a symbol of freedom on January 1,” says Nadege Fleurimond, a chef and cultural ambassador who has written and self-published two cookbooks, “Haiti Uncovered” (2014) and “Taste of Solitude” (2020). “Oh my God, it’s a sense of pride, cultural lineage, heritage, and connection. It’s everything,” says Fleurimond, who’s based in Brooklyn. She shows you how to make her version of joumou in a video on her YouTube channel. The recipe makes a batch big enough for a celebrating crowd, but you can halve or even quarter the ingredients if you want a more manageable dish.
If these dishes feel too ambitious, take a cue from dietitian Marissa Moore and roast chunks of fresh pumpkin and serve them with olive oil and sea salt as a side dish or add them to warm winter salads. Even easier? Try canned pumpkin (sprinkled with cinnamon or pumpkin spice, if you like) in smoothies—like this one—or stir it into oatmeal or yogurt.
Haitians around the world eat soup joumou as a symbol of freedom on January 1. Oh my God, it’s a sense of pride, cultural lineage, heritage, and connection. It’s everything.
Photo: Courtesy of Gurber Mathews
Pumpkin Pro Tips
Pumpkin is a hard winter squash and can be difficult to cut. Chef Kung’s tool of choice? A butcher’s cleaver. “They’re one of the easiest knives that you can use to cut and chop up a pumpkin,” he says. “They go clean through, just keep your fingers far away.”
If a cleaver feels a little intimidating, opt for a large chef’s knife. Try turning the pumpkin at different angles until it feels secure on your cutting board—putting a tea towel under the pumpkin can add some stability. Making the pumpkin as flush to the work surface as you can will make cutting it safer. Knock the stem off with a few taps of a hammer if it’s getting in your way.
Starting at the center, firmly insert the tip of your knife into the pumpkin with the blade pointed away from you until you reach the bottom of the gourd. When the knife is standing straight up in the pumpkin, push the handle down with some force through the flesh to the cutting board. Once the knife is parallel to the counter rotate the pumpkin and continue to cut through the other side until the pumpkin is halved. You can then chop it into smaller pieces for cooking.
Chef Fleurimond prefers a scoop over a chop. “Pumpkin is definitely hard to cut,” Fleurimond says. Instead of processing the entire fruit, Fleurimond cuts it in half and lets the oven do the heavy lifting, “I suggest roasting it first so you can just scoop it out.”
