I wrote a post awhile back about our huge cushaw squash we grew this year.  I had no idea what to do with cushaw squash but they seemed cool and odd and interesting so I decided to grow a bunch of it.  I searched around a few places and read at least 7 minutes online and discovered that cushaw squash can be used in place of pumpkin, butternut squash, hubbard squash or sweet potatoes.  Cool!  I love pumpkin pie so we decided to make some cushaw pumpkin pie.

Of course, I have never made a pumpkin pie from scratch either so we had some figgerin’ to do.  After another 7 minutes of reading, we discovered how to proceed.  We cut the squash in half and deseeded it (the seeds are awesome baked too btw! We baked 30 minutes at 350 in a cooking sprayed pan).  I lined two baking dishes with foil and sprayed the foil and the exposed squash halves with cooking spray.  I baked the squash face down on the foil at 350 for 1 hr 15 minutes (of course, the size of the squash will determine the time.  I did a small one first).  Once baked, we scooped out the flesh with an ice cream scooper and used in it place of canned pumpkin in our recipe.

By the way, here is our recipe:

Pumpkin/Cushaw Pie

4 eggs
4 cups pumpkin/cushaw  (or 1 large can)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
2 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or mix your own…see online)
2 large cans evaporated milk

Combine all ingredients and pour into prepared pie crusts. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Then reduce heat and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Makes 2 pies.

We followed the recipe pretty much. Our squash was pretty liquid so we only added 1 can of the evaporated milk. If you want a super orange pie like pumpkin, you’ll need to add coloring. Ours was naturally a greenish, yellowish, orangey color which suited us fine.

The pie was awesome and simple to make. Its flavor was delicious and the lighter color made it really pleasant to look at.

Of course, we did a taste test and our two judges gave two thumbs up…clearly a winner!

We’ll probably bake the rest of our squash and freeze the pureed flesh for future pies. I saved some seeds too so I excpet we’ll plant more cushaw next year!