Paleo Pumpkin Breakfast Mash

When I first went paleo, I used to eat eggs for breakfast absolutely every single day. And it worked pretty well for a while! Fast forward 5 months later and I was thinking, “I can’t even look at another egg again.” This lead to a several month boycott of eggs entirely.

Nowadays, I’ve learned my lesson and eat eggs for breakfast in moderation…but I am glad that the egg hiatus lead me to find all sorts of egg free recipes that are equally filling!

This recipe is a little more time consuming up front but it reheats amazingly well and makes enough servings to last over several meals.  It also pairs well with savory breakfast side dishes like bacon or prosciutto. Heck, if you’re really into eggs at the moment, an over easy egg on top of a portion of the mash is pretty darn yummy!

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Ingredients:

• 1 small pumpkin
• 2 large carrots, shredded
• 1 tablespoon chopped up dried apricots
• 1 tablespoon chopped up dried cherries
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans and/or walnuts (or substitute your favorite combination of nuts)
• 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (making your own is fun)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1.5 tablespoon honey
• optional: substitute a pumpkin spice blend instead of the cinnamon and nutmeg
• optional: 2 teaspoons of brandy

Steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Wash your pumpkin. Then cut it in half, scoop out all the seeds, and set aside.

3. In a medium sized mixing bowl, add in the shredded carrots, dried cherries/apricots, and nuts. Stir well to combine.

4. Add in your melted coconut oil and mash together.

5. Then add the cinnamon/nutmeg/pumpkin spice, vanilla extract, honey, (and brandy, if using) to the entire mixture and mash together. It’ll probably be a little thick to stir and that’s ok.

6. Add in the water, a little at a time, and stir well to incorporate it into the mash.  It’ll end up being the consistency of very thick batter.

7. Lie your pumpkin halves flat on your cooking surface and then divide the mash you just made equally between the two pumpkin halves.

8. Wrap each pumpkin half individually in foil so that it’s completely sealed.

9. Place both halves into the oven for 1 hour.

10. Remove your pumpkin halves out of the oven and unwrap.

11. Let cool slightly and then scoop all the contents of the pumpkin (including the now-cooked pumpkin!) into a large mixing bowl and mash together using a fork.  Alternatively, you can transfer everything into a food processor and mix everything together that way. (Although if you’re using the food processor, make sure to only mix for a few minutes or you’ll lose the fun texture of the nuts and the dried fruit.)

Yield: 6-8 servings.

Serving suggestion: While I love this on its own, I really love pouring a dash of grass fed whipping cream or coconut cream on top of the pumpkin mash.

Have any questions about the paleo diet, health in general, or all things DIY? Ask me anything on the Submit A Question page.