Pumpkinfest

Tonight I made two huge pots of pumpkin soup from an absolutely massive pumpkin that Andy's greek grandmother grew and kindly gave to us. I fiddled with the flavours a bit and came up with Masala Curry Pumpkin Soup and another flavour for the other pot, Coconut Pumpkin Soup.

After chopping and chopping for what seemed like hours (actually it was), I looked at the gigantic pile of pumpkin seeds, skin and leftover stringy pulp and couldn't bear to throw it out, so I picked out all the seeds and put them in my dehydrator to dry, juiced the pulp (it wasn't a bitter pulp) with some ginger, celery, and an apple, and put the skin in my compost heap.

Then I started wondering about the nutrition content of a pumpkin, their seeds, their leaves (they're edible!) and their flowers so I looked them up on nutritiondata.com (one of my favourite websites), and the comparison data can be viewed here.

According to their data, raw and cooked pumpkin are practically identical in nutrition content, containing beta-carotene (listed on nutritiondata as vitamin A, but vegetables don't have vitamin A so you know it's the equivalent, which your body then converts (rather poorly - 4:1 ratio in adults with properly functioning digestive systems, 15:1 in teenagers and young children can't even make the conversion)), Vitamin C, E, K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, Folate, Pantothenic Acid, Selenium, Manganese, Copper, Zinc, Potassium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Calcium and having an amino acid quality score of 56. Carb/Fat/Protein (C/F/P) ratios - 88%/3%/9%.

They do not contain any vitamin D or Vitamin B12, and they are rather low in Selenium.

It turns out though that while pumpkin leaves have less Pantothenic Acid, slightly less Zinc and Vitamin C, they have more Selenium, Vitamin K and Calcium, as well as a far better amino acid quality score at 90 than does the actual pumpkin flesh. C/F/P ratios - 59%/9%/32%. Guess I'll have to try pumpkin leaves next time I try growing pumpkins, maybe steamed or boiled with some olive oil, lemon and sea salt, or juiced. (I wonder if the little hairs on the leaves are off-putting...)

Pumpkin flowers have no Manganese, Pantothenic Acid or Vitamin K, as well as lacking the same as the others - B12 & Vitamin D. They may or may not contain B6, E, Copper, and Zinc either depending on whether they are cooked or not (according to the data cooked has them, raw doesn't - maybe they're made more "bio-available" through cooking?), or depending on how correct the data is. They didn't get an amino acid score for some reason. C/F/P ratio - 78%/4%/18%.

Pumpkin seeds have a C/F/P ratio of 13%/71%/16%. They have Vitamin K, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Zinc, Copper, Manganese, and low amounts of Beta-carotene (A), Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, Folate, Selenium, Calcium and Potassium. They come out on top of all pumpkin products in terms of the amino acid score, with it being 136 and containing all of the essential amino acids in good ratios, making it a complete protein. They also contain a small amount of alpha-linolenic omega-3 fat in addition to their linoleic omega-6 fat. Due to their high content of these polyunsaturated oils (nearly half the weight of each seed) they really shouldn't be roasted as it will damage these fats.

I'm fascinated pumpkin seeds are complete proteins. I'm always interested in which foods by themselves or when eaten together form complete proteins. Other complete proteins I've come across as combos (other than meat, milk, cheese, fish, chicken) include "ABC" which stands for Almonds, Brazil nuts, Cashews; "LSA" Linseed, Sunflower seeds, Almonds; Lentil soup with Almonds; and Black beans with brown rice. I like to try to include a complete protein with each snack / meal when possible (mainly as protein can lower a meal's insulin response, helping to control blood sugar/mood swings, but also as complete proteins are more useful to your body overall) and knowing these combinations or individual complete protein additions makes that task easier.

I will caution against eating pumpkin seeds with pineapple juice though: for some reason it can make the seeds swell up inside you and can cause some discomfort/problems apparently.