Pumpkin Cleaning Rules. Quick ways to peel a pumpkin How to peel a hard pumpkin easily

Ingredients:
- pumpkin.

Recipe with photo step by step:

So, first of all, prepare the pumpkin. This time I have it completely not large in size, approximately the size of a soccer ball, but not so round. If you have a huge pumpkin, even too much, then put it in a large shopping bag, tie the handles in it and throw it to the floor with maximum force. Thus, your vegetable will crack, and you can easily break it in half. Then cut the pumpkin with a large and sharp knife into strips such as in the photo.




The thickness of each strip should be as thin as possible, approximately 1.5 centimeters and preferably no thicker.








Then remove the seeds with a knife. You can, of course, immediately choose all of it with the most ordinary tablespoon, but it’s more convenient for me to do this already when the pumpkin is cut into strips.






Then cut off the thick skin of the pumpkin. As you can see, this process is the easiest. By the way, you can even use a vegetable knife for this purpose.




In such an original, simple and, in my opinion, the easiest way, you will clean the pumpkin as quickly as possible and be able to cook delicious dishes from it, for example,

Pumpkin has many vitamins and minerals in its composition, which makes the vegetable popular and in demand. Delicious soups, casseroles, stews, salads, desserts and even fresh juices can be made from orange treats. But before cooking, be sure to peel the pumpkin, this is not easy to do, because the top layer is hard. A few simple tips will help you get rid of the skin and enjoy the taste and aroma of the vegetable.

Before using a vegetable for cooking, it must be washed. After all, constant contact with the earth and the insects that live there necessarily affects the appearance of bacteria. Running water is enough to wash dirt off the surface. Then, depending on the dish that will include the pumpkin, you can either peel the vegetable or leave it on the fruit. Therefore, there is no definite answer to the question of whether it is necessary to peel the pumpkin from the peel.

If the vegetable begins to be baked in the oven in slices or stewed on a baking sheet, becomes a component of juice or is grated, then in such cases you can refuse to remove the peel, this will save time and effort. But in most recipes, it is still recommended to clean the pumpkin from a hard surface so that its particles do not interfere with enjoying the taste of the dish.

There are three types of pumpkin:

• Large-fruited (despite its impressive size, the skin is removed quite simply and without the use of force, it is thin and bursts under pressure).
• Hard-barked (the peel is quite hard, resembling a walnut. You can get rid of it with a sharp knife).
• Muscat (has a pear-shaped shape and the largest amount of vitamins. Peeling a pumpkin is easy, because the top layer is dense, but it is easy to cut due to its thinness).

The choice of cleaning option depends on the type of pumpkin, the recipe. Some dishes require only a superficial removal of the skin, while others, on the contrary, consist of a completely peeled vegetable.

Peel removal options

It is easy to cope with the thin surface of the pumpkin, but there are fruits in which it is simply unrealistic to cut off the skin. Correctly clean the pumpkin with a sharp large knife, evenly removing plate by plate. We can distinguish the following order of preparation for cooking:

There are many methods for peeling a pumpkin. Some of them allow you to remove the skin with minimal damage to the pulp. Others are aimed at removing seeds from a practically whole fruit. Still others take a minimum of time and do not cause trouble. It is also important what kind of vegetable has to be processed, because pumpkins are large and small, differ in shape, thickness of the peel, size of the seed compartment.

Preparing vegetables for processing

Regardless of the type of fetus and its purpose, the preparation is the same in all cases. It involves the following manipulations:

1. We clean the surface of the pumpkin from dirt, leaves. Rinse thoroughly under the tap, rubbing with a sponge or cloth. It is not necessary to soak the fruit, it may lose its purity of taste, and in some varieties the peel is very softened, after which it is difficult to peel the fruit without damaging the pulp.
2. Be sure to wipe the surface with cloth or paper napkins. We are waiting for the pumpkin to dry completely.
3. We prepare the necessary tools for cleaning the vegetable, containers for storing seeds (especially if they are planned to be dried), peel and pulp.

If small points of decay are visible on the surface of the peel, it is recommended to cut them out in advance (still at the stage of removing the leaves). Otherwise, during cleaning, pathogenic microorganisms will fall on the pulp. In cases where the lesions are impressive, and their removal leads to the fact that you have to get to the core, the resulting holes do not need to be plugged. Just wash the surface of the pumpkin will have to be very careful.

How to quickly and efficiently remove the peel?

To peel a pumpkin from the skin, you can use the simplest method. We cut the product into two parts, remove the seeds with a spoon or a special spatula. Next, we divide the fruit into several oblong strips or pieces, each of which is separately peeled from the skin. The resulting pieces of pulp are cut as needed according to the recipe.

Tip: The tender flesh of the pumpkin is easy to mash with your fingers when holding it in your hands, which will change the structure of the product. To prevent this from happening, we spread the strips or pieces of the vegetable peeled on the table, take a very sharp knife and separate the pulp from the substrate, and not vice versa.

If you just need to cut the pumpkin for further storage or save its pulp in the form of large pieces, this method will not work. In this case, it is best to clean the fruit as follows:

• We take a previously prepared pumpkin, cut off two centimeters of bark with pulp from each pole of the fruit. These pieces can be thrown away.
• Next, remove the seeds so that they do not fall out during the subsequent cleaning. To do this, you can use a spoon, preferably wooden, with a long handle. Manual cleaning is also allowed, it is even more effective.
• We place the cleaned workpiece on a cutting board, placing it on one of the poles so that the vegetable does not stagger or slip. We take a vegetable knife or a potato peeler and use it to clean the fruit, removing thin strips of peel.

The inconvenience of the latter approach lies in the fact that it is sometimes impossible to quickly get to the pulp. If the bark is very thick, you will have to spend a lot of time on its full removal. But, if the fruit was very fresh, with a thin skin, the manipulation will take just a few minutes, after which it remains to cut the pulp as needed. An additional plus of the technique is that this way it is possible to save most of the pulp.

We clean the fruit from seeds

If the dish involves filling the pumpkin and baking it to its full size, without cutting, then the skin is usually not removed. But in this case, you have to decide how to cleanse the fetus from the inside. This is usually done like this:

1. A cap is cut off from the pole with the stalk, which allows access to the inner chamber of the pumpkin. There is no need to save the product. Due to the high location of the cut, the hole will turn out to be too narrow, it will be inconvenient to clean and stuff the camera. The lid also needs to be cleaned - seeds or unnecessary fibers often remain on it.
2. Next, take a rounded spoon with a long handle and begin to clean out the cavity of the pumpkin. In the process of manipulation, you can’t press on the walls of the vegetable, they can crack, you can’t press hard with a spoon, so you can clean out not only the seeds, but also the pulp.
3. If the vegetable was very juicy, then after such exposure, a lot of liquid can accumulate on its bottom. It is recommended to get it wet, especially if there is no intention to lay out the filling right now.

A peeled pumpkin intended for cooking does not need to be refrigerated. It is better to wrap it with cling film or just put it closer to the cold. But if there are no plans to cook something from pumpkin in the near future, it is recommended to cut the peeled product into pieces and freeze it in a quick way. Pumpkin pulp does not need to be sprinkled with salt or use other tricks; it will lie in the freezer for several months without it, and this will not help it in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin is a large, bright orange vegetable that is used in a wide variety of dishes. However, before you start cooking, you need to properly process it and prepare it for further use. To do this, it is important to know how to clean a pumpkin in order to reduce the amount of waste and preserve the maximum amount of substances useful to the human body in it.

Useful properties of pumpkin

Before you peel a pumpkin from a hard peel and cook a delicious dish out of it, you need to learn about the beneficial properties of this vegetable and contraindications. This is necessary so that eating pumpkin does not cause negative consequences and does not affect health.

This orange vegetable includes a number of important substances that ensure the normal functioning of all body systems.

Among the most important it is worth noting the following:

• vitamins A, B, E, PP, F, D, C;
• magnesium;
• iron;
• potassium;
• calcium;
• cellulose.

All these beneficial substances help to cope with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and improve digestion. In addition, pumpkin can become an indispensable product in the treatment of diabetes, atherosclerosis, kidney and cardiovascular diseases.

Among the negative factors affecting the human body, it is worth highlighting the possibility of allergic reactions, bloating, colic. You should not use this vegetable for people suffering from low acidity of gastric juice and severe diabetes.

Vegetable Cleaning Secrets

To peel a pumpkin, you need to study in detail the tips and secrets of experienced chefs. They will help beginners avoid most mistakes and complete all actions as quickly as possible. When peeling pumpkins, professional chefs advise doing the following:

Easy ways to clean

Professional chefs around the world have come up with some simple ways to properly peel a pumpkin. All of them are quite easy and do not require special skills and time costs from you. Not only an experienced hostess, but also a beginner can easily cope with such work.

traditional method

This method of carving a pumpkin is the simplest and most commonly used. It allows you to quickly and easily separate the skin from the pulp with minimal loss. Each stage of work must be carried out very carefully so as not to cut yourself with a sharp knife. If everything is done correctly, then after a few minutes you can get the pulp ready for further cooking. To complete this work, you will need a wooden cutting board, a large sharp knife and a tablespoon.

The process of peeling pumpkins and seeds using the traditional method is very simple and consists of the following steps:

Microwave

If you bought a pumpkin a long time ago, and it has lain with you for more than a week, then its skin has become even rougher and more difficult to remove. In this case, various modern devices, such as a microwave oven, come to the rescue. With its help, you can slightly soften the top layer of the fruit and simplify the process of cutting it. To do the job, you will need a wide knife with a well-sharpened blade, a large cutting board, a microwave and a tablespoon.

You can cut a vegetable by following the following sequence of actions:

In the oven

Since a microwave is far from being found in every apartment, enterprising housewives came up with a way to clean a pumpkin using heating in the oven. This method takes more time, but also allows you to effectively deal with tough skins.

To clean the pumpkin and remove the pulp, you will need the following items: foil, baking sheet, sharp knife, wooden board, tablespoon.

Step-by-step process of peeling with oven softening:

Seed preparation

Pumpkin seeds are no less useful than the vegetable itself. They contain a huge amount of micro and macro elements that support the normal functioning of the body. Pumpkin seeds are rich in phosphorus, magnesium, as well as vitamins A, PP, B. Based on this, it is important not to miss your benefits and properly process and clean the seeds. To do this, you will need the following items: a wooden cutting board, a sharp knife, a rolling pin, a saucepan.

With the participation of this unique vegetable, a lot of simple and delicious dishes are prepared. Due to the most useful properties, nutritionists often prescribe it to people who have problems with the liver, digestive tract, kidneys, blood vessels, and vision. But in order for the process of cooking, say, pumpkin puree soup, porridge, casseroles or pancakes to bring pleasure, it is advisable to learn in time how to peel a pumpkin. Why is it so important? The fact is that the peel of the queen of vegetables is too hard. In order not to be injured, in the cleaning process you have to make really great efforts and be careful. After all, out of ignorance, you can get hurt from the very first movements.

Pumpkin varieties

So, in order to have fewer problems directly during this complex process that requires such efforts, you need to prepare for it in advance. After all, there are varieties of pumpkin that are easy to clean. Therefore, now we will talk about them, about varieties.

• hardcore

It is easy to guess why they are so named - the peel of ripened fruits is too stiff. And it is clear that cleaning them is a very difficult and hard work, which only a man can handle. But the variety is still good - it ripens early, has a small size and is famous for the most delicious seeds.
Bush varieties are ideal.

• large-fruited

The origin of this name is also clear. These are the largest examples. They will have to tinker hard in the course of preparation. After cleaning, the pumpkin can quickly disappear, because all the leftovers are unlikely to enter the refrigerator. But there are pleasant moments here, because the fruits will please you with the fact that they are the sweetest (sometimes sweeter than watermelons), react better than others to low temperatures and can be stored for a long time even in an apartment.

• Muscat

They love heat very much, they ripen late, they may not ripen where the summer is short, and therefore it is advisable to breed them in the south. But that seems to be all the cons. Because nutmeg varieties are the most delicious and vitamin, they are grown by seedlings (first - seeds, and then plants in the ground), are removed unripe until the first frost (they “reach” in the house).

How to start peeling a pumpkin?

So, each variety is good for something, and everyone chooses based on their preferences. But before proceeding to culinary research, the fruit must be cleaned. How to get started?

1. Choose a copy suitable for a particular purpose.
2. Remove dirt, leaves, etc.
3. Rinse thoroughly under the tap (especially when it comes to preparing juices, salads).
4. Wipe with a towel or paper towel and let dry.
5. Think about whether everything will have to be cut, where to store the leftovers, etc.

How to remove the skin?

It all depends on some factors. After all, among the mass of varieties, each differs not only in color and the state of the bark. There is also such a thing as shape, size and scope. After all, pumpkin pulp is used more often in the economy. Therefore, it is important to get rid of the peel, and from the stalk, and from the pericarp. Moreover, this process is individual for representatives of all varieties. Therefore, when preparing for work, both the structure of the product and which tools will be used are taken into account. If this happens in an ordinary kitchen, a knife and a spoon are enough. It helps a lot, especially with small sizes, an ordinary vegetable peeler.

Usually, a vegetable is cut into the desired parts (often very small so as not to get hurt), and then carefully clean off the hardened bark with a sharp knife. Why is this approach inconvenient? Not always everything can be used at once, because there are fears that pumpkin pieces can deteriorate without proper storage. Therefore, surface treatment is often dispensed with.

• To do this, the prepared product is placed on a cutting board, strengthening it so that it does not slip on the surface of the table.
• With a large knife, carefully cut off the ends on both sides (somewhere at a distance of a couple of centimeters). They can be thrown away.
• Using a small serrated vegetable knife, peel the pumpkin, removing small strips of skin.
• You can, cutting in half, put the halves cut down and cut into long slices - so the knife does not slip on your fingers.

It is advisable to place the pumpkin comfortably, holding the knife either vertically or horizontally. Then you need to act depending on what will be done in terms of the future fate of the fruits - whether they will be baked, or boiled, or laid in the freezer, and so on.

How to remove seeds?

Yes, this problem must be solved, because you can’t cook anything with seeds. They have a different fate. Therefore, they are carefully but carefully chosen by hand or with a spoon along with the pulp. Putting them on a plate, you can continue to work further with the fruits.

If you do not clean the entire pumpkin - both from the peel and from the seeds - then it can be sent to the refrigerator. But do not put in polyethylene - so it will quickly disappear. You can store such pieces for several days.

It is best to store half of the pumpkin or peeled slices closer to the cold in some kind of bowl, covering it with cling film.

If there is no room in the refrigerator, and there is no plan for a pumpkin dish, it can be peeled and cut into pieces or grated. After packing everything in bags, lay in the freezer.

Summer varieties are easier to clean, but they must be cooked immediately - they do not lie for a long time even in the refrigerator. But winter can be stored for a long time.

Pumpkin seeds are a healthy product, because they can be dried and eaten.