The husband and kiddos gave me an Instant Pot for Christmas. During our stay at the rental house while our new house was being built, it became our go to for cooking since our kitchen was tiny. So far I make pork ribs, apple sauce, and yogurt regularly in it. I've ditched the Crockpot and got a glass lid for this bad boy too. It rarely leaves the top of the counter these days, even in the new house.
In the refrigerator I had an acorn squash and another random squash I picked up the last time I was at Trader Joes. We also had a few sugar pumpkins from our trips to the pumpkin patch this year. So I decided it was time to prep them for winter. I usually do this every year and then freeze the puree for later use.
It has been such a warm fall and today is another warm day so instead of cranking on the oven, I thought I would try out the Instant Pot. After a quick Google search, I cut them up and scooped them out. Honestly I grabbed the little scooper from the pumpkin carving kits and it worked perfect to clean out the seeds. I cut them into chunks so they would fit better in the Instant Pot, added the rack, and filled it up. I added 1 cup of water and set it for 20 minutes on manual.
Timing was the harder part as there was quite a variation in how long to cook them. I started with 20 minutes on manual for the squash with a quick release. I maybe could have only gone 15 as the flesh just fell off the peel. The first round of pumpkin I did 20 minutes on manual with a quick release too. The second time I bumped it down to 15 minutes on manual with a quick release. I continued with this time for the rest of the pumpkin.
There was no battle separating it. I do suggest letting it cool for a few minutes before handling as I burned my fingers a bit. I then just laid it down on a cutting board peel side down and just gently scraped the flesh off with a silicone spatula. Easy peasy! To get it nice and creamy blend it with your blender or emulsion blender. You can use the water from cooking to thin it out if needed.
I continued to cook all the pumpkin chunks. I'm sure it would have been faster to bake them all in the oven, but I always end up burning the bottoms of them or forget about them until they are black and starting to flame. Since I was cleaning and caring for sick kiddos while these cooked, it was the quickest and easiest route. I never did change or add to the water. I think I will save it for soup or liquid in bread. No need to waste good pumpkin infused water!
All in all this is now be my go to for cooking pumpkin and squash for purees. Helpful tip...stack the chunks skin side down. It makes removal a bit easier and you won't lose the yummy goodness into the water. I ended up with about 3 cups of squash puree and about 12 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree. I topped off the pumpkin broth to make 2 cups of broth.
