How to cut a pumpkin (the easy way)
Everyone has their own, unique way of cutting a pumpkin, but the real question is, how to do it easily and safely?
These few tips and tricks will help you cut a pumpkin and get your delicious soup or risotto ready in no time. Before you delve into slicing and dicing the winter vegetable, make sure you have prepared and arranged your working space well.
A large chopping board should be placed sturdily to ensure it won’t move around. A damp cloth underneath the board will help keep it in its position while you work. Using a smaller, blunt knife will make it extremely difficult when hacking into the skin or body of a pumpkin, therefore, it’s best to use your sharpest and heaviest knife.
If starting with a whole pumpkin, start by cutting it in half from the stem to the base. This will allow you to use a spoon or an ice cream scoop to remove the seeds and discard.
How to cut away the skin of a pumpkin
If you’re making a dish such as a pumpkin soup, risotto or scones, cutting away the pumpkin skin is required, which is the fiddliest and toughest part. To do this without hurting yourself or wasting the flesh, use your sharp knife to get between the flesh and the skin to ensure it glides through the skin easily.
Tip: Cutting the pumpkin in half first will make is easier to reach the grooves of the pumpkin.
Alternatively, if the pumpkin is longer variety like a butternut pumpkin, you could cut both ends off, and use a sharp peeler to peel away the skin of the body as its skin is quite thin.
How to cut your pumpkin
Once the pumpkin skin and seeds have been removed, slice your pumpkin into wedges if it is a Queensland Blue, Kent or Dumpling pumpkin and thick slices if it is a Butternut pumpkin.
As the body of a pumpkin is solid and hard, it can be a difficult and sometimes dangerous chunk to cut through! Therefore, using the heel of your hand will provide weight to ensure the knife glides through the pumpkin while also ensuring your fingers stay out of harm’s way.
Lastly, while every piece does not need to be the exact same size, it does need to be similar so that each piece cooks through at the same speed. This helps you avoid having some pieces that are cooked through while others remain raw.
