“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
The zucchini and pumpkin harvest season was in full bloom last month and now as winter has come, many of us have stocked our kitchens with these versatile seasonal squashes. I was fortunate to harvest many zucchinis from my organic garden this year and to get several pumpkins and other winter squashes from a local organic farm called Isabelle Farm. Even the adorable neighborhood squirrels joined in the fun and ate a large portion of an oversized zucchini in the garden and gnawed a creative carving into the organic pumpkin that I decorated my front porch with. With this surplus of squashes, I decided to come up with a creative recipe to feature both of these autumn beauties whose flavors compliment each other quite well.
Zucchinis are botanically classified as a fruit since they grow from a beautiful flower that also happens to be edible and delightful. For instance, the blooms are delicious stuffed with a savory nut pate. They are part of the subgroup of squashes that are called summer squashes. The defining feature of summer squashes that distinguishes them from winter squashes is that they have a soft and tender rind. Winter squashes on the other hand have a hard, thick rind and include squashes such as pumpkins, acorn squashes, and butternut squashes. Zucchinis are excellent sources of magnesium, folate, potassium, lutein, zeaxathin, Vitamin C, and fiber. Pumpkins are also the star of this recipe and are rich in carotenes, potassium, magnesium, lutein, zeaxanthin, Vitamin C and fiber. I will add that I typically follow food combining in my recipes since I have found this practice to be healthful and helpful for optimal digestion, but pumpkin is not considered to be a non-starchy vegetable so combining it with coconut which is classified as a protein food in most food combining practices is not absolutely optimal. However, I find it to be low enough in starch to work fairly well and if one would prefer to follow ideal food combining principles, you could certainly replace the pumpkin with non-starchy carrot. To clarify, the food combining practice that I have found to be the most effective includes the principle of not combining proteins and starches. Personally, I always choose organic, beyond organic, biodynamic or wildcrafted ingredients since I believe this choice helps support our own health, the health of our loved ones and the sanctity and health of our environment.
Here is one of my original recipes to celebrate this harvest season. May it be of benefit!
Autumn Harvest Zucchini Pumpkin Bread
3 1/2 cups zucchini
3 1/2 cups pumpkin (skin peeled and seeds set aside)
2 cups raw young thai coconut meat (Exotic Superfoods is my favorite source)
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 tsp whole green stevia leaf powder (Mountain Rose Herbs is my stand by)
1/2 tsp whole vanilla powder (Rawpower is my favorite)
1 cup spring water (I am fortunate to be able to get local world renowned Eldorado Spring water directly at the source)
Directions: Blend all ingredients until smooth in a blender. Personally, I use a refurbished Vitamix that has been going strong for the last 10 years. I eventually invested in one after several cheaper ones broke and proved to not be capable of some of the tasks I required. You could even stop at this stage if you like and eat it as a pudding because it is quite delicious like this as well. If you would like to continue on and make it into a bread, you simply use a dehydrator that you can control the temperature setting on. Some brands don't allow you to adjust the setting and will heat the mixture to a temperature that is above 112 degrees Fahrenheit which is known to destroy enzymes and other nutrients. I prefer to keep it raw and have an Excalibur dehydrator that works excellently for this purpose. I lay unbleached parchment paper on three different trays and lightly coat them with some organic raw coconut oil or organic extra virgin olive oil. I then spread the mixture into three small circular flat breads by pouring a third of the mixture onto each of the three different trays that have unbleached parchment paper lining them and then spreading them out with a spatula. You could use teflex sheets too if you prefer. I tend to make them about 1/2 inch thick since I find that dehydrating foods at low temperatures works better when the foods are not overly thick. This is because sometimes unwanted fermentation or mycotoxins tend to take over when the mixture is too thick and cannot be as evenly dehydrated. Dr. Gabriel Cousens did some studies about dehydration and found that it may work better to run the dehydrator up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for the first hour and then turn it down to 112 for the rest of the process in order to avoid mycotoxins from proliferating. He pointed out that the food still stayed raw since it didn't have time to overheat during that first hour and this initial higher temperature instead simply helped jump start the process. This is currently how I dehydrate at this time, but I always stay open to new ideas. Once you have spread the mixture on the parchment paper you dehydrate the bread overnight or for 8 hours if you want a crispy flatbread. If you want a softer bread you can dehydrate it for 2 hours on one side and then flip it and dehydrate it for another 2 to 3 hours until it is a nice soft texture. I find that if you dehydrate it over night there is no need to flip it. Last of all, I like to toss the pumpkin seeds that were set aside at the beginning with a little celtic sea salt and dehydrate them at the same time until they are crisp which usually takes about 6-8 hours. The variety of bread I made this time that is pictured below was the crispy variety. You can garnish it with pressed, dried autumn leaves and hawthorne berries if so inspired.
This is what the mixture looks like before it is dehydrated.
“Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go”
These are the pumpkin seeds before they are dehydrated. My dear mama who is from Greece told me that her family used to dehydrate pumpkin seeds in the sun! Dehydrating them at a low temperature in a dehydrator is a similar method to this traditional practice and it helps protect all the healthy essential fatty acids that are adversely affected by being exposed to high heats. They essentially become denatured and oxidized when roasted at a high temperature. Enzymes and many of the nutrients remain intact when you prepare pumpkin seeds this way and they are absolutely delicious!
Here are some of the beautiful zucchinis that came from my garden and some other exquisite veggies and fruits from the harvest season.
Thanks for being here for my first blog post and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
Warmly, Melina