What to do with your pumpkin after Halloween
Once the pumpkin carving is over and the Halloween treats have been hoarded, it's time to blow out the candles and figure out what to do with all that leftover pumpkin!
Approximately 24 million pumpkins are sold in the UK each year – that’s a lot of pumpkins! The majority of these will be used for carving or Halloween decorations. Research by Hubbub suggests that up to half of these will be thrown away after Halloween – generating around 18,000 tonnes of extra food waste.
It takes five months to grow a full-sized pumpkin and it’s a shame to let all that goodness go to waste.
Here’s some ideas for your leftover pumpkins -to help ensure your Halloween doesn’t leave any spooky remains behind! If you’re after inspiration for carving, we’ve got a great little guide on how to carve your pumpkin for Halloween.
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Cook your pumpkin
The best thing to do with your leftover pumpkin is to cook it! Hubbub have a great guide on how to eat your pumpkin – including which parts are edible!
Here are some recipe ideas – and it all fits perfectly into Cook and Share month, where our friends at Food For Life encourage people to come together, share food and have a chat.
Pumpkin recipes
- Spicy pumpkin soup – recipe from our very own Scotland and Northern Ireland Regional Manager, Grainne
- Pumpkin hummus
- Pumpkin, chickpea and coconut curry
- Pumpkin, carrot and apple muffins
- Roasted pumpkin pie
- Pumpkin tortelli with sage and walnut butter
- Squidgy pumpkin and ginger loaf
- Roasted pumpkin seeds
Plant your pumpkins
Store some of the larger seeds from your pumpkin in a cool, dry spot for planting next spring.
The RHS have a brilliant guide on how to grow pumpkins from seed – you could carve your very own homegrown pumpkin next year!
Use pumpkin in crafts
You can use both the seeds and flesh from pumpkins in different crafts – a great way to extend the fun once you’ve carved your pumpkin!
Pumpkin necklaces and bracelets
Colour some seeds with food dye then thread them together using a needle to create pumpkin bracelets and necklaces.
Pumpkin bird feeders
You could also poke holes in a plastic bottle and fill it with the pumpkin seeds to make a bird feeder for your garden.
Pumpkin play-doh
You can use leftover pumpkin flesh to make an edible (although perhaps not tasty…) play doh!
What to do with inedible pumpkins
Any parts of the pumpkin that are not suitable for eating, such as where a candle may have scorched the flesh, can be mixed into your compost bin or green-cycled through your garden waste caddy. Just chop it into chunks to help it break down more easily.
Don’t leave your pumpkin out for hedgehogs or other wildlife. While this seems like a lovely idea, pumpkins are often too rich for the tummies of small animals, and can stop them finding the nutrient-and fat-rich food they really need.
Eco-friendly Halloween ideas
If you’re planning costumes and decorations, we’ve got lots more green Halloween inspiration to make it a waste-free event all round this year!
As Halloween continues to grow in popularity in the UK, it’s really important that this doesn’t create an ever larger mountain of food waste…Halloween is a great opportunity to help our children understand where food comes from and involve them in cooking a simple meal with their pumpkin carvings.
Trewin Restorick, Founder of Hubbub
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