Okay, here it is – our grilled pumpkin recipe.  The recipe that got us going on all of this “harvest” nonsense.  And, if we do say so ourselves – it’s worth the wait.  There’s something about plopping a pumpkin full of grilled vegetables down on the table in front of your guests that is immensely satisfying (and tasty too).  We stole (oops, pardon me:  ‘borrowed’) the recipe from www.recipezaar.com

Ingredients
- 6 lb pumpkin OR 6 - 1 lb white striped OR 2 3-lb. pie pumpkins (or a combination of both)
- 1/3 cup butter melted
- 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 large sweet peppers, yellow, red, or orange seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
- 2 medium red onions, cut into wedges (3 cups)
- 2 Portabello mushrooms
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups tomato wedges
- Olive oil Balsamic Vinegar

Assemble ingredients.

Cut the top of the pumpkin off.  This is a good chance to cut ‘jack o’ lantern’ holes into it if you want.  However, be aware that cooking juices will leak out of the holes during cooking.

Remove the seeds and that gross, slimy, pulpy stuff.

Rinse the seeds for roasting later; on your barbecue of course.

Place the pumpkin and the lid CUT SIDE DOWN in a roasting pan with an inch or two of water in the bottom.  The water will keep your pumpkin nice and moist. Cut your vegetables into slices or wedges and add liberal (small “L”) doses of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Grill on your barbecue (preferably using indirect heat) on medium for about 30-45 minutes.  The longer you cook your pumpkin the softer and tastier the pumpkin meat (“flesh”?) will be.  However, as a presentation bowl, a slightly undercooked pumpkin looks a bit nicer.

Add the chili powder, sugar and cinnamon to the melted butter and stir.  Make lots of this mixture as it adds a nice sweet and earthy taste to the pumpkin.  We added chipotle chili pepper and it was delicious.

Heat up your grill topper on the barbecue.  You’ll need direct heat for this.

Add your onions and let them soften up a bit.

Add the mushrooms and any harder vegetables you might want to add that will take longer to cook.

After it is soft enough to eat – remove the pumpkin from the roasting pan.


Baste the inside of the pumpkin with lots and lots of the
butter and spice mixture.  Of course you’ll be using a silicon basting brush to do this.


Place the barbecue and lid ‘cut side down’ on the barbecue grill.  This will add some nice barbecued flavour and char marks to the pumpkin.


Add your peppers to your topper and stir them about.


Let your mixed vegetables and your upside down pumpkin cook for about ten minutes and then remove the pumpkin from the grill.


Spoon your grilled vegetables into the pumpkin.


During the transfer of vegetables to the pumpkin be careful not to drop any of the vegetables on the ground…


Place the lid on the pumpkin and you’re ready to serve.  Letting the vegetables ‘stew’ inside the punkin allows the flavours to mingle and intensify.  You may even consider putting the full pumpkin on the grill for a few more minutes.


Eat. You or your guests will have to carve into the soft pumpkin to get at its meat. This was an interesting extremely tasty way to cook fall vegetables. When we do it again we’ll add some green vegetables to brighten things up a bit. Using “pie pumpkins” worked well as they have a sweeter taste.  If you could find smaller pumpkins so that you could serve one per guest that would be ideal.