There’s a lot of nutrition in the oil of pumpkin seeds so it’s worth looking at some of the most popular pumpkin seed oil recipes and some more unusual ways to enjoy it in your meals.
Starting with the more popular, Styrian pumpkin seed oil is an excellent salad dressing with an amazing nutty flavor that really brings salads to life. Stronger tasting leaves like rocket, watercress and chard are particularly good, but any salad will benefit from a drizzling of this extremely healthy oil.
You can experiment with mixing it with good quality apple cider vinegar, fresh lemon juice or avocado oil, but it tastes really good just on its own.
Pumpkin seed oil makes a great finishing topping for soups. Poured in a pattern over the top just before serving, it adds a dash of flavor and health nutrients to just about any soup, but pumpkin soup is an especially good match.
Cheese and pumpkin seed oil go very well together. It livens up the milder cheeses and providing an intense contrast with the more mature and stronger tasting ones. Try a little bowl of Styrian pumpkin seed oil with your next cheese platter for something a little special.
A drizzling is delicious over freshly steamed veggies, like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and sweet potatoes. Since many of the nutrients in these vegetables are fat-soluble, you’re much more likely to benefit from them by eating them with a source of healthy fatty acids.
Many rice and pasta dishes are also enhanced with a light topping of pumpkin seed oil just before being served. It adds an interesting flavor and goes particularly well with meals based around tomatoes, potatoes, chicken or salmon.
Austrian bakers often make kurbiskernbrot (pumpkin seed bread), where the oil of pumpkin seeds is used instead of other vegetable oils. I’d definitely like to try that and see no reason why it couldn’t be added to regular homemade bread for a rich and nutty flavor.
Perhaps the strangest recipe suggestion I’ve heard of, but also one that is said to be very popular in certain parts of Austria, is to pour Styrian pumpkin seed oil over vanilla ice cream. This apparently turns the ice cream bright green and is said to taste amazing. I don’t often buy ice cream, but think it might be worth it just to try this. I’d imagine bright green oil over good vanilla ice cream would certainly make for a talking point dessert at a dinner party too.
If you’d like to try a culinary oil with a unique taste and a high level of nutrition, the page on where to find pumpkin seed oil has both good quality Styrian and raw pumpkin seed oil for improving your health. I’d appreciate hearing from anyone in the comments below who has tried any of these suggestions or if you have any other ideas for recipes.
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Photo credit with thanks: timtom.ch