pumkin and a jar of pumpkin purée on a counter covered in pumpkin seeds

Homemade pumpkin purée is delicious to eat, healthy for you and incredibly easy to make!

It’s fall y’all, which means everyone is craving all the things that are pumpkin: pumpkin spice latte’s, pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pasta, etc. ALL. THE. THINGS. PUMPKIN.

Unfortunately, for my area at least, it has been difficult to find canned pumpkin anywhere, so I’m taking this opportunity to show you how to make it yourself. You’ll be surprised how easy it is too!

This post contains some affiliate links, which means if you use the link I provide, then I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read my full disclosure here.

I grew these 2 adorable little Sugar Pie pumpkins in my back yard. We had to harvest them early because those dang squash beetles were vicious this year. They’re cured and now are ready to use!

Side note: you can use whatever pumpkin you want and however many you want. I just had these 2 left and decided if I was doing one, I might as well do them both.

Prep

Before you begin, you’ll want to wash your pumpkins very well, then move your rack in your oven to the middle and test if the pumpkins will fit before you start preheating it. It’s a lot easier to test this way so you don’t burn yourself. Don’t ask me how I know this…

2 pumpkins on a baking sheet in the oven

Anyways…

Baking Process

2 pumpkins on a baking sheet on top of a stove

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, then get out a sheet pan that will hold your pumpkin(s) and use either parchment paper or a silicone mat.

I personally leave the pumpkins whole because I’m lazy. You can cut them in half if you’d like but I find it easier to just leave them whole.

Bake time ranges based on the size of the pumpkin. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2+ hours.

Area Prep

blender, bowl, a cutting board and knife on top of a counter

While your pumpkin(s) are baking, prep your area.

Tools you may need:

cutting board
sharp knife

blender

scrap bowl (I just use my chicken pot because our chickens love pumpkin)

Separate bowl (If you’re wanting to save your seeds for roasting)

Spoon for scooping

Puréeing Process

a pumpkin on a baking sheet in an oven with a knife poked into it

When the pumpkin is ready, you’ll be able to pierce it easily with a knife.

If you find your pumpkin isn’t cooked long enough when you start the process of cutting the top off, just throw it back in a little longer. It won’t hurt anything.

a pumpkin on a cutting board next to a knife and another pumpkin on a counter with a square cut into the top

Cut the top off like you would if you were going to carve a pumpkin.

The insides come out really easily. If you don’t get them perfectly cleared out in this step, it’s not a big deal at all. You’ll be able to get more out before it’s puréed.

a blender and a pot next to a cutting board with a bowl of pumpkin seeds, 2 pumpkins and a knife on top of a counter

They’ll look like this once you’ve cleaned them out.

cutting board with a full pumpkin and a quartered pumpkin with a knife and a 1/4 measuring cup

Take a pumpkin and cut into 4 sections. This is the last opportunity to get all the pumpkin “guts” out.

hands scooping out pumpkin into a blender with a measuring cup

Take a section and scoop it out into your blender. Be careful not to get any skin in with the pumpkin “meat”.

Do this step until you’ve cleaned out all your pumpkin sections or your blender is full. Which ever comes first.

Discard the leftover pumpkin skins. By discard I mean either feed to your chickens or compost them.

blender filled with pumpkin insides next to a metal pot on a counter

It’s time to make the homemade pumpkin purée!

Now depending on your blender, this could be done in a flash or take a couple of minutes. Mine’s a few years old and has seen better days, but I love her and I’m not giving up on her just yet! Poor girl took her time to blend this amount up. Haha!

close up of a blender filled with partially blended pumpkin purée

I had to use the blend and smash method: blend until it looked like nothing was happening, turn it off and cram a wooden spoon to smoosh it down, repeat until it was completely puréed.

blender with pumpkin purée on a wooden spoon

It will look like this when it’s done. Perfectly smooth with no hunks. That’s it!

See how easy that was?!

Storing the Purée

2 pint mason jars with a black canning lid on a cutting board

I personally use mason jars for just about everything, depending on how long you’re wanting to store it, you could use other containers.

Storage options

For short term storage, fill a container with a lid and put the pumpkin purée in the fridge for a week.

For long term storage, place pumpkin purée in a freezer safe container and store for 6-8 months.

You can use mason jars to freeze, you just can’t fill them all the way up like I did. Fill it until it’s almost to the bottom ring and leave the lid off for a couple of hours when you put it in the freezer. Once it’s frozen, put the lid on. I have found this method works and have not had a jar explode yet.

2 jars filled with pumpkin purée on a counter

I got 2 pints of homemade pumpkin purée out of these little pumpkins! That’s pretty great considering they were TINY.

I also prefer to put them in pint size jars because they’re about the same size as the cans of pumpkin you get at the store.

2 pint jars with lids filled with pumpkin purée

a pumpkin, jar of pumpkin purée on a counter with pumpkin seeds on it

You now have homemade pumpkin purée and didn’t have to worry about the store not having any.

Happy Pumpkin Season!

Comment down below and tell me what your favorite pumpkin treat is!

Pin for Later

Previous Blog Posts

How to find raw milk

How to find farm fresh meat

Egg Free Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls