My recipe for stuffed pumpkin and Garden Expo news
Hello and welcome to my latest blog , newsletter.
This weekend the Medicineroom is heading to Queensland Garden Expo in Nambour. This event is a favourite on our Calendar each year. The Nambour Showgrounds are taken over by Gardeners . The area is turned into a maze of green leaves and flowers. There are thousands of gardeners in one place and the conversations are all green thumbed and focused on the good life!
I am presenting there twice this year. On Friday morning at 9am we will unravel the health benefits of winter cough cold and flu relief. What can you make at home to help you with reduce these ailments.
On Saturday I will be at Eumundi markets all day so Tam will be at the Garden show looking after you and I will be there in the afternoon. On Sunday I am doing a presentation on winter warming foods that truely are medicine. The recipe I have here in my blog is one idea on winter food as medicine.
Now, if you can come to my presentations thats great. We always hove some lovely giveaways and fill your hour with education and practical how to make medicine workshops. Its fun. If not then here is a recipe.
We have our next LONG TABLE WELLNESS DAY IN MALENY ON SUNDAY JULY 29th on making herbal medicines for skin care including pain relief, skin conditions and hormonal skin changes.
Here is my recipe for stuffed pumpkin.
My friend Vanessa has had a garden full go pumpkins all summer. She invited me over for lunch and made the most delicious stuffed pumpkin with lots of rice and vegetables. Vanessa served this with toasted pumpkin seeds and avocado dip. It was so yummy, and it was so inspiring. As I was getting ready to leave, her lovely partner Rob came out and cut a pumpkin for me so that I could bring it home to stuff myself. This opened up the kitchen of creativity for me again....
Why are pumpkins good for you? The contain betacarotene which is a great precursor to vitamin A and sweep the liver and blood clean of toxins. Beautiful antioxidant qualities of lycopene thats been shown to reduce prostate cancer as well as many other anti cancer properties. They are high in potassium so great for cellular health and to reduce blood pressure. You need to keep your sodium and potassium in balance and this gorgeous vegatable helps you do that well. They are also high in fibre, esp my recipe where you eat the skin.
What you need
1 large pumpkin that has been deseeded. The inside needs to be scooped out enough to fill the pumpkin with your choices. The lid needs to be kept. To scoop out the pumpkin slice around the top of the whole pumpkin with a sharp knife and scoop off the lid. Then take out the seeds with a large spoon and scoop with the spoon into the flesh of the pumpkin until you only have about 1.5 inches of outer flesh and skin as a case for your stuffing.
Your stuffing for the pumpkin here are some ideas.
Precook brown rice and mix with fresh raw vegetables cut in small pieces. Mix them all together and add your spices.
Meats of your choices mixed in with vegetables. This can be done with 1 kg of fresh local meat chopped finely and mixed with onion, garlic and spices.
My choice this week freshly chopped up vegetables and winter garden herbs. Mixed with ricotta cheese so that you have a big cheesy ball.
Make sure you add your favourite flavouring spices to this mix. Examples are garlic, herbs, stock powder for extra flavour, peanut butter, ( yes my fav) some honey, a little salt, chilli, curry powder. Add what flavours you want to enhance and this will cook into the pumpkin for a full flavoured feast.
You can theme the pumpkin too. For example make a curry and fill it with that. Or for a Mexican theme add beans and corn with a tomato filling. creamy cheesy fillings are also good. Make sure your filling is dense without much liquid and pop the top on your pumpkin before cooking.
How to cook.
- Stuff the pumpkin with the mix you made.
2. Turn the oven onto 150 degrees slow oven for this one and if you have the option to turn off the fan, then turn it off.
3. Place the pumpkin in a baking dish and coat with some good quality olive oil and rub lightly with some sea salt.
4. Bake in the oven for three to four hours with the oven slow and low. This enables the pumpkin to cook right through and the flavours to mature nicely. You can also place the pumpkin in a deep casserole dish in the oven too with a lid on. The choice is yours. Either way you want to give this dish time to cook so that the end result is a soft and flavour filled meal.
We served ours with some coconut, raison and pine nut rice, honey carrots and butter beans.
This dish is one of the worlds best left overs too. Just pop the remaining food in the fridge and feast on pumpkin for a day or so.
Our next workshop is on July 29th in Maleny. We will be making Herbal medicines for skin care and wellness. This includes skin conditions and arthritis and pain relief.
We will be at Queensland Garden expo and Splendour in The Grass Global Village in July too.
Contact us 0409765033 to book or online Wellness workshops with Dom
Our facebook pages are Dominique Livkamal and Medicineroom http://www.facebook.com/dominiquelivkamal
http://www.facebook.com/medicineroom
On instagram we are medicine_room
Check out our awesome herbal skin balms, oils and nectars online. We love making these for you and if you are out and about we will be at Eumundi Markets on Saturday. We are also offering our Herbal Body Therapy in Caloundra each week. Love and light.
Have a great day
Love and light Dominique Livkamal
MHlth public health/health promotion Bch Hlth Sc/ Complimentary medicine ND, Nutritionist, herbalist . Adv Dip Nat. Dip Journ. Kundalini yoga teacher, Zen Thai Shiatsu, student of life and wellness advocate. Founder Medicineroom. High vibes on the mountain, herbal first aid services and programmer for Woodford Folk Festival.... always working with love, gratefulness, light and through the divine grace!