Mini Pumpkins Stuffed with vegan Chorizo and Chickpeas

These little cute pumpkins may be perfect to adorn any kitchen table or mantle piece, but come to slice them and they are quite resistant little things.  These mini pumpkins known as munchkin pumpkins were very hard to slice, but I persevered and then scooped out the seeds for the garden birds.

The hollowed out mini pumpkins serve as fantastic bowls that you can take straight to the table, no washing up to do either, something that my husband appreciates as he does most of the dishes in our home.

You can stuff mini pumpkins with all manner of things, such as the vegan Spanish style chorizo, chickpeas and kale that I made.  It was very nice too.  One of my favourite long term food blogger extraordinaire and Queen and inspirational kick starter behind UKs  Underground Supper Club scene Ms Marmite Lover aka Kerstin Rodgers has some wonderful suggestion on How to use squash and pumpkins.

Vegan Mofo prompt is Autumn Fall Traditions.  I tend to make the most of small pumpkins in season, this blog post  is also inspired by Thanksgiving.  

Ethiopian Eritrean Inspired Zigni Vegetable Broth

And to be more specific the vegetables in this Ethiopian and Eritrean Inspired Zigni Broth are spinach and sweet potatoes, as I had neither pumpkin or squash to hand to make the more familiar D'ba Zigni.  

Like the Spaghetti Zigni , the recipe for this D'ba Zigni also comes from Celia Brooks World Vegetarian Classics.

I think this dish could benefit from being made a day in advance as the brothy liquid could infuse the sweet potatoes more deeply.  

Ideally this broth should have been served with Injera - Sourdough Flatbread, but I served it with Basmati rice, after all this was a relatively quick after work meal.  I did however, make the fiery Berbere Hot Spice Blend at home from scratch (pictured below).

Sweet lightning

This is the last of my baby sweet lightning pumpkin. I am so loathed to cut into it, but it must be done.

I do intend to grow these little pumpkins again this year. They were absolutely delicious. I baked them and served them with feta cheese, as well as turned them into little tarts with gorgonzola and goats cheese. Yum.

As delicious as these baby pumpkins are, they are so hard to cut into. So be very careful.

Good things to come

The wind is howling outside, and the rain is crashing hard on the window panes. My hopes for a visit to the allotment may have to be postponed if the weather continues like this tomorrow.

To cheer me up and may be you too, here are some more pictures from my allotment last year. More good and delicious things to come.
scarlet runner beans - really pretty and delicate flowers

Tower sunflower

Sweet lightning pumpkins plants - from this to this.

Gorgeous. They were absolutely delicious!

Broad bean plants

Now ready to podded and eaten