We received a message from a visitor last week about white pumpkins and how they compare to orange pumpkins in terms of taste and nutritional value.
By coincidence, we’d just given a white pumpkin a try for ourselves for the first time… and I’m happy to report that we found it really delicious! If anything, it was even sweeter than a regular orange pumpkin, although I should point out that we used a medium sized white pumpkin. We’ve heard that the miniature white pumpkins are not particularly tasty and are better suited to ornamental purposes!
Since some white pumpkins have the interesting name of ‘Ghost Pumpkins’, they sound ideal for use at Halloween and would certainly make great Jack O’Lanterns!
As for nutritional value – well, the flesh of the white pumpkin is similar in colour to that of a regular pumpkin. Ours was the typical orange colour – perhaps a touch lighter – though we’ve heard that some varieties may be nearer to yellow. So the beta-carotene content should be very close to an orange-skinned pumpkin and therefore still very nutritious, although we haven’t yet seen a nutritional analysis we could use to compare them!
The recipes on our Pumpkin Baby Food Recipes page would work well with any variety of pumpkin – so feel free to give white-skinned pumpkins a try when cooking for YOUR little one.
And if you’ve already tried a white pumpkin, please do leave a comment and let us know what you thought of it!
Akila
Wednesday 21st of October 2009
i have heard that white pumpkin makes babies feel gassy, though I have not tried it on my child, to find for myself. Probably it is not the ideal first solid foods.