While pumpkin carving, trick or treating and scary movies are all on the cards for Halloween this year, the real fear-factor will be the amount of pumpkins that go to waste.
With families making up for missing out on the fun last year, a bigger Halloween means that a predicted 35 million pumpkins will be bought and carved, and, without intervention, a spine-chilling 14.5 million will end up in the bin as food waste.
Let’s put this into perspective with some horrifying statistics: over 5 billion litres of water and 98 million tons of carbon emissions are generated in the growing, storage and transportation of all those pumpkins. That’s enough water to fill over 2,000 Olympic swimming pools and the equivalent of powering nearly 23,000 homes for a year.
To help everyone use up their Halloween pumpkins, squashes and gourds for their intended, and often forgotten, purpose – as food – food waste fighters Oddbox have launched an SOS, or Save Our Squash hotline. With no run-of-the-mill pumpkin soup in sight, the hotline will provide unique recipes to inspire people to get creative in the kitchen and help the planet at the same time.
To get people excited about making use of the whole pumpkin – even the stringy bits – the recipes will include sweet and savoury pumpkiny twists on everyday classics. Simply send the type of squash you want to save and two ingredients you already have to [email protected], and you’ll get bespoke recipe inspiration in return.
To get you excited about your pumpkin’s potential, here’s a sneak peak of the low-waste recipe options.
Pumpkin spice latte with maple whip cream
Try this zero waste pumpkin spice latte recipe. The pumpkin flesh and skin is turned into a creamy puree and the pumpkin strings and seeds into delicious crispy cinnamon toppings.
Prep time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 45 minutes
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
For the pumpkin latte:
100g pumpkin
½ tsp cinnamon
⅓ tsp ginger
⅓ tsp nutmeg
100ml espresso or strong coffee
300ml milk of choice
For the maple cream:
300 ml whipping cream
2 tbsp maple syrup
For the pumpkin seeds:
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vegetable oil
Method:
Make the pumpkin puree: preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/gas mark 4. Cut the pumpkin in half. Use a spoon and scoop all of the pumpkin strings and seeds out. Set the seeds aside for the roasted pumpkin seeds. Cut the pumpkin halves into pieces, and place in a large shallow baking dish. Fill up the baking dish with about 1cm of water. Put the pumpkins into your preheated oven and cook for 45 minutes, or until …….
