As Halloween approaches its time to start thinking about all the autumnal foods that can bring comfort to those cosy nights snuggled up with a hot chocolate (or even better a pumpkin spiced drink) and a cheesy rom com. In this article I’ll be sharing some of my favourite recipes, all made with few ingredients and on a student budget.🍁🎃🍂
1. Roasted pumpkin salad
This is perfect for a lunch on the go and can be made in a big batch at the beginning of the week, making your weekday lunches easy and delicious! With few ingredients and little preparation this is one of my autumnal go to recipes. I’ve listed the main ingredients I use, but feel free to make it your own adding your favourite ingredients or simply just anything that needs using up in your fridge that you think would go well.
Ingredients:
– Rocket salad
– Pumpkin cut into chunks (be careful when doing this as pumpkin can be tricky to cut!)
– Baked pumpkin seeds (see recipe 2)
– Feta cheese
– Pomegranate seeds
– Baby plum tomatoes, halved
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4 whilst you are carefully chopping the pumpkin. Once chopped, place on a baking tray and drizzle with oil. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Whilst your pumpkin is in the oven make yourself a nice cuppa (or a pumpkin spiced latte- see recipe 3) and begin prepping the rest of your salad by chopping the baby plum tomatoes in halves.
- Next, place the rocket into a bowl with the pomegranate and tomatoes. Once the pumpkin is cooked add to salad before crumbling feta cheese and sprinkling baked pumpkin seeds on top to finish.
- Either eat right away or pack up in a tupperware for an autumnal picnic in front of Exeter’s lovely Cathedral.
2. Baked Pumpkin seeds
If you’re like me and hate food waste, then this is the perfect recipe for you. Pumpkin seeds work great as a topping for salads (like in recipe 1), sprinkled on top of your morning porridge along with a dusting of cinnamon or simply just as a library snack.
All you have to do is place the rinsed pumpkin seeds on a baking tray and season with whatever you like! Personally, I prefer to either coat them in cinnamon, sugar or honey- maybe all 3! If you couldn’t tell, I’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth, but if you’d rather keep your pumpkin seeds savoury then why not flavour with some chilli powder. After you’ve seasoned the seeds, place them in an oven preheated to 180°C for around 10 minutes or until golden.
3. Pumpkin spiced latte
Now you can’t talk pumpkin recipes without giving a special shout out to the famous pumpkin spiced latte. Of course, the queen of pumpkin spiced lattes is the Starbucks version but unfortunately, my student budget doesn’t accommodate for one of these a day, so I’ve instead found a recipe that comes close to the magics of this autumn favourite.
Check out this Pumpkin spice latte recipe for the perfect drink to accompany your study sessions, autumn walks or movie nights. These are just some of my favourite seasonal recipes but for more inspiration check out Pumpkin recipes BBC Good Food which has lots of great ideas from pumpkin humous to pumpkin pancakes. Enjoy!