Every fall, I look forward to pumpkin season. I love taking my kids to pumpkin patches, bumping along dirt roads on hay-filled tractor rides and making pumpkin desserts.
Now that we live in London, fall looks and feels different.
To my surprise, pumpkins in today’s London aren’t hard to come by, even though I’m not sure I could find an actual pumpkin patch in the urban jungle we’re living in. The discovery of sugar pumpkins (which are called “culinary pumpkins” here as opposed to “carving pumpkins”) made my little American heart soar and sigh with relief all at the same time. Sugar pumpkins turned out to be a delight to cook with, and this harissa pumpkin hummus with homemade pita makes the most of that discovery.
A good pumpkin spice tea isn’t one of those overly saccharine, in-your-face pumpkin spiced creations that pepper the shelves from late September through Thanksgiving. Look for a black tea, so there’s a mellow bitterness that balances out a subtle sweetness. A spice blend of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger adds a warmness.
For me, the sweetness of the tea would have been completely overpowered by a sweet dessert, so I went the other direction with a spicy harissa pumpkin hummus and homemade pita bread. I love the complexity of harissa, a red chili-based paste that also includes garlic, caraway, saffron and olive oil. Harissa is commonly used in Middle Eastern foods, and I’ve used it before to make this amazing weeknight chicken dish.
The harissa pumpkin hummus isn’t any harder to make than regular hummus (with canned chickpeas, garlic, tahini, olive oil and salt and pepper), except that you need to peel and chop the pumpkin and roast it for a good hour to an hour and a half until it’s super soft and mushy. After that, I just pureed the pumpkin before adding chickpeas, harissa and other ingredients to my food processor.
The real key here is to make your own pita bread. I won’t say that it’s particularly easy — there’s a lot of kneading and resting time, but oh man, there is nothing that beats a hot, puffed up pita fresh from the oven. I ripped into my pita right when it came out of the oven, and immediately a cloud of steam wafted towards me, like a genie being released from a magic lantern. It was heaven.
The harissa pumpkin hummus with homemade pita was the perfect accompaniment to my cozy turtleneck sweater and a piping hot cup of pumpkin spice tea. I wish I could say that I just sat around one morning and dipped shred after torn shred of pita into my hummus while I daydreamed, but the reality is, I had a million other things going on and so I just kept on buzzing around.
Want to try another fun recipe for the season? Check out these Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Scones! Recipe here.