Name: Pumpkin pizza slices
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 1 small butternut squash or pumpkin; 1 Tbsp olive oil; Two sprigs of thyme, leaves only; 1 clove of garlic, minced; 1 Tbsp tomato purée/ketchup/harissa paste; 1 ready-rolled pizza dough or puff pastry (can be gluten-free)

Pumpkin pizza slices

29 Oct 2019

by Dinna

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

45 minutes

Total Time

55 minutes

Background

These pumpkin pizza slices are always popular at our Halloween parties! This time I used a special pumpkin cookie cutter set, so I could stamp out various shapes of eyes and mouths. But you can use normal pumpkin cookie cutter too! These pumpkin slices are vegan (so dairy-free) – I made some with gluten-free pastry too, so that people with gluten intolerance can enjoy them too. For adults, you can add chipotle or harissa paste to the pumpkin purée. One more thing, you can pre-bake the squash/pumpkin or use tinned pumpkin purée/mash.

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash or pumpkin
1 Tbsp olive oil
Two sprigs of thyme, leaves only
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp tomato purée/ketchup/harissa paste
1 ready-rolled pizza dough or puff pastry (can be gluten-free)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Cut the squash into thin wedges while removing the scruffy bits and seeds.
Put the wedges onto a baking tray, rub them with olive oil, season with salt and pepper then scatter the thyme leaves all over. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until soft and brown.
Let the squash wedges cool, then scape the flesh into a bowl. Add the garlic and ketchup/harissa paste and mash with a fork (leave the burnt and brown bits in the mash).
Unroll the dough or pastry onto a clean work surface.
Stamp out pumpkin shapes, using cookie cutters. You can stamp or cut out mouths and eyes too.
Lightly brush each slice with ketchup, particularly around the edges, then spread the pumpkin mash over them, using a spoon or silicon brush.
Place the pumpkin slices onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 10-15 minutes until the pastry/dough cooked through and the pumpkins are golden brown around the edges.
Let them cool, then serve as a snack or with a bowl of hearty soup.

Tips

This recipe is ideal to use up the scooped-out flesh of carved pumpkins. Just put the flesh onto a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, scatter the thyme leaves all over and bake for 15 minutes or so, until golden brown. Let it cool and follow the recipe.