Baked pumpkin pudding

Photo by Matilda Angus

It must be more than a year already that we are following a food combination diet. Which simply put, means separating proteins and starches in meals and not having fruit with or soon after meals. This was brought on to see if it would help with George's low blood sugar problems and I knew from before that it helps me loose weight rather quickly and easily. 

It did. George never comes in from the workshop anymore ready to devour the entire contents of the fridge, and I lost quite a few kg which made me feel great on our wedding day. Generally we feel much healthier and more energetic and we are now used to picking dishes carefully. 

But George still was plagued by a spastic colon and we decided to take it one step further and eliminate all gluten. This is proving to be quite a challenge for me, and add to that our aiming to keep the GI count low on everything we eat, I often get anxious just thinking of what to serve at meal times. 

I am constantly keeping an eye open for recipes that meet the requirements. I found the basic recipe for this comforting winter pud in my recipe file in some torn-out magazine pages from back in 1993 and adapted it slightly to be almost food combining friendly (eggs may occasionally be used with starch as it is easily digested), gluten-free and lowish on GI. 

It is best served hot with cream or custard made with rice milk.

Baked pumpkin pudding
Ingredients:

Enough raw cut pumpkin to yield 2 cups cooked pumpkin

30 g butter

300 ml cake flour (for gluten free version, I use half chick-pea, half gluten-free cake flour mix)

5 ml baking powder

5 ml baking soda

10 ml ground cinnamon

5 ml ground ginger

2 ml ground nutmeg

120 ml sugar

2 extra large eggs

5 ml vanilla essence

250 ml milk

250 ml thick cream

120 g butter, melted

125 ml seedless raisins (I use cranberries)

Method:

1.       Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

2.       Cook pumpkin until dry and soft and add butter. Put aside to cool slightly.

3.       Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.  Add sugar and stir through gently.

4.       In another bowl, whisk eggs, vanilla, milk and cream lightly.

5.       Stir into dry ingredients with melted butter, raisins and the cooked pumpkin.

6.       Pour into a buttered 2 litre baking dish and bake  for about 1 hour or until golden and centre is springy to the touch.

7.       Serve warm with custard.

Custard

450 ml milk

45 ml cornflour

30 ml castor sugar

1 egg yolk

5 ml vanilla essence

Method:

1.       Whisk all ingredients, except vanilla in a saucepan until smooth.

2.       Heat slowly on medium while constantly stirring. The custard must not boil or it will  curdle.

3.       When it starts to thicken, take off heat and stir in vanilla essence.

Now this is what comfort food is all about.

Matilda