The pumpkin season is in full swing! We love to make dishes with different pumpkin varieties, either as a main course or even a dessert.
This time, we’ve prepared a fresh salad with roasted Hokkaido pumpkin, fresh spinach, and a dressing made from soy yogurt and vegan feta cheese substitute.
For more on the nutritional benefits of pumpkins, check out our previous posts, such as Pumpkin “goulash,” mashed potatoes with chickpeas, and black radish in a salad and Three-coloured pasta and a wild sauce.
Recipe, preparation, and meal cost
| Quantity (g or ml) | Cost per lunch (eur) | |
| Salad | ||
| Spinach | 240 | 0.96 |
| Pumpkin | 1400 | 2.37 |
| Walnuts | 60 | 0.57 |
| Olive oil | 30 | 0.41 |
| Salt | 4 | 0.00 |
| Dressing | ||
| Pumpkin seed oil | 30 | 0.47 |
| Vegan feta | 200 | 1.99 |
| Vegan yogurt | 200 | 1.30 |
| SUM | 8.06 |
- Wash and slice the pumpkin into bite-sized pieces, season with salt, and add a bit of oil.
- Roast the pumpkin in the oven for about 30 minutes at 200˚C.
- For the dressing, blend the vegan feta cheese with the soy yogurt in a tall container.
- Roughly chop walnuts with a knife, or use pre-chopped ones.
- Arrange fresh spinach on a plate, top with roasted pumpkin, and sprinkle with walnuts. Drizzle with a bit of pumpkin oil and the yogurt dressing.
The price of our lunch for 4 people ended up being €8.06, which comes to €2.01 per person. The most expensive ingredients were pumpkin and vegan feta.
Nutritional value
This meal provides about 25% of daily energy needs. Although it’s a bit lower in protein (22% of daily needs), it covers a significant portion of daily fat requirements (88%), with essential fat-soluble vitamins, including 177% of vitamin A, 49% of vitamin E, and 433% of vitamin K.
To boost the protein content, consider adding 100 g of beans and omitting the pumpkin oil. This adjustment would raise the protein intake to 30% of daily needs and reduce the fat to 71%.
| Consumed with lunch | % of daily needs | ||
| Energy | 502.8 | kcal | 25.14 |
| Protein | 12.5 | g | 22.37 |
| Total lipid (fat) | 38.5 | g | 87.58 |
| Carbohydrate | 32.8 | g | |
| Starch | 0.6 | g | |
| Sugars, total | 10.1 | g | |
| Fiber, total dietary | 4.7 | g | 19 |
| Calcium, Ca | 202.4 | mg | 20 |
| Iron, Fe | 4.981 | mg | 50 |
| Magnesium, Mg | 119.6 | mg | 30 |
| Phosphorus, P | 260.4 | mg | 37 |
| Potassium, K | 1603.5 | mg | 80 |
| Sodium, Na | 939.1 | mg | 171 |
| Zinc, Zn | 1.945 | mg | 19 |
| Copper, Cu | 0.727 | mg | 81 |
| Manganese, Mn | 1.577 | mg | 69 |
| Selenium, Se | 4.201 | µg | 8 |
| Vitamin A | 1772.7 | µg | 177 |
| Vitamin E | 7.393 | mg | 49 |
| Vitamin D | 0.4 | µg | 8 |
| Vitamin C | 48.6 | mg | 49 |
| Thiamin | 0.222 | mg | 17 |
| Riboflavin | 0.518 | mg | 35 |
| Niacin | 2.605 | mg | 18 |
| Pantothenic acid | 1.331 | mg | 22 |
| Vitamin B-6 | 0.481 | mg | 32 |
| Folate, total | 177 | µg | 44 |
| Vitamin B-12 | 0.2 | µg | 6 |
| Vitamin K | 303.0 | µg | 433 |
If you want a more detailed breakdown of the calculated nutritional values or have other questions and comments, you can write to us at hungry.pumpkin.blog@gmail.com. We will be happy to receive your emails!
Bon appétit from,
Your Hungry Pumpkin team
