Healthy Heart Tip: Pumpkin Potential

Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by the Health Promotion and Education Team at Heart Research UK

Halloween happens every year on 31st October and is a day filled with various traditions around the theme of scary stuff! One key ingredient of a great Halloween celebration is a carved pumpkin. Yet in-fact, pumpkins not only look great in your window, but are a versatile veg, full of fibre, and vitamins.

Here are some ways you can use your left-over pumpkin this Halloween:

Make a Soup

View our Pumpkin Soup recipe here. This recipe contains plenty of heart-healthy fats, is low in salt to improve blood pressure, and contains two of your 5-a-day!

Roast It

Roasting is a quick, healthy, and easy way to cook pumpkin. Simply peel, deseed, and slice into 1cm slices, then add a little olive or rapeseed oil and place in a heated oven at 200oC for approximately 40 minutes.

Swap it Out

A great way to use up left-over pumpkin from Halloween is to make some swaps. You can use roasted pumpkin as a great side-dish or substitute it for potato, pasta or rice for a more vegetable-filled plate with a flavour twist.

Use the Seeds

Pumpkin seeds are a great source of protein and fibre and are low is saturated fat. To cook, run water over the seeds to remove any excess pulp from the pumpkin, boil for 5-10 minutes, drain and spread over a baking tray, adding a little oil, then roast at 180oC for 8-10 minutes.

Heart Research UK
Proud to stand out from the crowd, Heart Research UK is the charity dedicated to your heart. They inspire and invest in pioneering medical research, ground-breaking training and education, and in communities to improve their heart health for themselves. For over 50 years they have driven advancements in the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease to benefit patients as soon as possible.


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