Pumpkin chunks in vinegar (pickled pumpkin).

The greatest Autumn side-dish!

Healthy and tasty addition to every Fall dinner.

Ingredients:

- 2 small cooking pumpkins (together weighing around 2 kg - whole, before gutting & cooking)

- sugar (1 cup- 250ml)

- vinegar 10% (1/3 cup)

- water (10 cups)

- 4 allspice berries

- 12 cloves or 1 cinnamon stick

Preparing pumpkin for pickling:

Wash, peel off, gut, and cut pumpkins into small (2cm x 2cm) pieces.

Bring a pot of water (5 cups) to a boil. Throw pumpkin chunks into the hot water, bring it to a boil again and cook until pumpkin is tender, but still intact and quite dense. You should be able to put a fork through it but still, feel some resistance.

Pour out the water, and move pumpkin chunks into the bowl or sterilized mason jars.

Pickle or not to pickle?

If you would like to pickle your pumpkin - use mason jars. If you prefer to eat it right away (or up to one week's time), ceramic bowls should do (you can put them in a fridge and cover them with cling film or tin foil). Pickled pumpkin in a jar doesn't have to be stored in the fridge, just in a cool and dark place (pantry is ideal).

Further Instructions:

Pour 5 cups (250ml) of water, 1 cup of sugar, and all the spices into the cooking pot. Bring mixture to a boil (make sure sugar has dissolved), add vinegar (1/3 of a cup or less if it's very aromatic and stronger than 10 percent), and bring it to the boil again. Turn off the heat and pour hot mixture over the pumpkin chunks.

Pickling:

After filling the jars, close them tightly using undented lids and turn jars upside down. Let them cool down and then check if lids are properly sealed (if so, lids won't click after you push them).

Short-term storage:

If you would like to add pickled pumpkin to your dinner straight away, wait for the vinegar water to cool down and you can go straight into munchin' mode! If you want to store it in a fridge, it should be good to eat for a week or so.

Bon Appetit!