The Pumpkin Cookbook

September 15, 2017

The revised second edition of this title, originally published as Pumpkin: A Super Food for All 12 Months of the Year, benefits from a refreshed design and stylish new photographs. Caterer and teacher Stovel covers the basics of raw and cooked pumpkin preparation, focusing on several methods (e.g., roasting, microwaving, steaming, grating), and then shares 139 easy recipes for starters, salads, mains, desserts, and other courses. No-nonsense dishes such as pumpkin seed GORP, roasted pumpkin Parmesan polenta, pork stew with pumpkin and prunes, and meringue pumpkin pie may not excite gourmets, but they'll satisfy pumpkin lovers wishing to expand their repertoire as summer turns to fall. VERDICT If you don't already own the first edition, this title will be useful to have on hand when pumpkin spice cravings start to strike. Consider also Allison Day's Purely Pumpkin and Eliza Cross's Pumpkin It Up!

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017
This is the second edition of a one-ingredient cookbook that's been enhanced by color photographs as well as some new recipes. If the mention of the versatile cucurbit plant family only recalls stringy, tasteless jack-o'-lanterns, pumpkin-aficionado Stovel will change your mind by introducing 139 recipes that will surpriseand tempt. Her preface, as it should, positions this squash as ready for anything, growing almost anywhere (except Antarctica), and just as comfortable in a snack as in a dessert. Stovel delights in scattering historical tidbits and culinary highlights throughout, with notes, for example, about Half Moon Bay as the world's pumpkin capital or an aside about the squash's superfood status. Many of the recipes will be very familiar, expanded by the addition of pumpkin: chutney and butter, wild-mushroom risotto, chicken tacos, meat loaf, even pizza and lasagna. An unstated focus in this second edition: sweets of all kinds, from pumpkin baked Alaska to pumpkin fudge. Things go better with pumpkin.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)