The easiest way to cook pumpkin is to roast it in the oven – WHOLE.

How to Choose a pumpkin for roasting?

I like to feel the weight of the pumpkin, if it feels heavy, it means that it has enough moisture in it to keep it moist. The sweetness of the pumpkin depends on the type of pumpkin you have in your country or area of residence as well as the colour.

We get a number of different types of pumpkins in Singapore, imported, of course. The Malaysian pumpkin is not as favoured by the residents although I, personally find them to be sweeter than the Australian or Japanese pumpkins. They are also less costly.

Back to sweetness of the pumpkin. If you intend to roast the pumpkin or butternut squash on the day of purchase, look for those that are turning yellow. A darker shade of the skin on the butternut squash means it is ripened on in the later stages of ripening.

How to roast? Firstly, wash pumpkin and clean away any dirt that is on it.Wrap the pumpkin or squash in heavy duty aluminium foil and stick in in an ovenproof dish (this is to catch any liquids that may drip through the foil. Saves cleaning the oven!) at 190ºC (375ºF) for an hour. A larger pumpkin or butternut squash will need about 90 minutes or an hour and 30 minutes. If you want it roasted quicker, you need to cut up the pumpkin, up the temperature to 200ºC (400ºF) and cook for about 45 minutes.

The best part of roasting a pumpkin? Roast it together with meats or chicken for the full cooking time, saves you time & trouble.