Pumpkin and orange pudding

This is a great idea of a Halloween sweet treat – a pumpkin and orange pudding 🙂 🎃 It’s light and very delicious, and incredibly easy to make. It’s vegan and gluten-free, and you can make it sugar-free as well if you like. Just use some very simple tricks – and you’ll get this amazing treat 🙂

• Pumpkin pulp – 400 g (sugar pumpkin would be the best)
• Freshly squeezed orange juice – 100 ml
• Gelatine – 10 g
• Sugar – as much as you like (optional)
• Melted chocolate – for decoration (optional)

Method is explained and illustrated below. Enjoy!

 

Cut the pumpkin in half (I used a medium sized one).

Take the seeds out and place two halves of the pumpkin on a baking tray, having covered it by foil.

Roast at 180 C for about 40 to 45 minutes.

Once the pumpkin is ready, cool the halves down a bit and take the pulp out with a spoon. The roasted pumpkin pulp is very soft and should pull away from the skin very easily.

 

Put the pumpkin pulp aside for now.
Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice out of it, until you get 100 ml.

Place the gelatin into a small bowl…

… pour the orange juice into it, mix together and put aside for 10 to 15 minutes.

In the meantime, place the pumpkin pulp into the whisking bowl and blend with the hand blender until well combined.

Once the gelatin has thickened in the orange juice and become lumpy, heat it up for about 30 seconds in a microwave and stir it in.

Pour the juice with the gelatine into the bowl with the pumpkin pulp…

… stir it in with a spatula…

… and start whisking, first at the medium speed, and in a few minutes, you can increase the speed to a maximum. Your total whisking time should be 20 to 30 minutes.

If you want, you can add sugar about half way through your whisking time. I added very little – about 50 g. If your pumpkin is sweet, you don’t need to add sugar.

Keep whisking until the mixture had turned much lighter in colour, thickened and turned very creamy – like this.

 

Now, prepare the tray or dish of the shape you want the pudding to take. I used a loaf tray.
Cover the tray with a cling film, leaving quite a lot of it at the sides.

Place the pumpkin and orange mixture into the tray, having smoothened the surface…

… cover it with the cling film you left at the sides, and leave in the fridge for a few hours (best to leave it overnight).

In a few hours, take the pudding out of the fridge and remove the cling film that covered it.

Cover the pudding with a serving dish…

… turn it over, and remove the cling film.

If you want, you can melt some chocolate, place it into a piping bag, cut the edge off making a very small hole, and create any patterns you like.

And enjoy! 🙂 It’s very light and fruity, and orange juice contemplates the bitterness of the pumpkin beautifully. It’s a very healthy dessert too, as pumpkin is high in fibre and vitamin A, and low in calories.