Fall is here and you know what that means? Pumpkin everything everywhere! Turkey’s no exception, so here’s a set of common Turkish pumpkin dishes that you can try out at home and get into the fall atmosphere.

Pumpkin Soup

This one’s particularly common in the province of Niğde. It’s a creamy pumpkin soup that warms you up on the colder days of the season.

Ingredients:

• 500g grated pumpkin
• 1 liter milk
• 4 cups water or broth
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Grate the pumpkin and cook in the water/broth until it’s started to melt in, then add the water and spice.

Pilav With Pumpkin

A dish more common along the Eastern Black Sea region between Artvin and Rize. You'll notice it's on the sweet side and is really the perfect fall pick-me-up.

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of pumpkin
• 2 cups of rice
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 teaspoon of salt and black pepper to taste

Leave the rice in warm salted water for an hour. Wash and dice the pumpkin and toss it in a pot. Ad two cups of water and cook on low heat for 15 minutes.

Melt the butter, pour the rice and leave for 10 minutes on low heat. Put in the boiled pumpkin, 2 cups of hot water and salt. cook until the rice has absorbed the water. Turn off the stove, wait 10 minutes, and serve with sugar.

Stuffed Pumpkin

This common Ottoman dish is a common dish used to break the fast for Ramadan, coming originally from the palace.

It's made with pumpkin stuffed with pistachios, onions, rice and minced meat. A simple dish, but worth it!

Take a size of pumpkin that will fit into the pot, remove the top shell and keep it rounded and washed. cook the rice in melted butter and add a little bit of hot water and salt. Sprinkle pistachios, raisins, a bit of sugar and any spices you want and afterwards use the mixture to stuff the pumpkins.

Pumpkin Pudding

Muhallebi ingredients:

• 1 liter milk
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup sugar

Pumpkin puree ingredients:

• 1.5 kg pumpkin
• 2.5 cups sugar
• Half a cup water

To sprinkle on top:

• Walnut

Cut up the pumpkin one night before cooking. Sprinkle sugar on top and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, take the pumpkin with the pot and cook it on the stove until it's soft without stirring.

As the pumpkin is cooking, prepare the custard. Mix together the starch, flour and sugar. Add in the milk, slowly stirring it and then put it on the stove. When the custard just begins to boil, stir well. Cook for 15-20 minutes on low heat after it's been brought to a boil until the odor begins to dissipate.

When our custard is ready, we take it off the stove and add vanilla before serving.

After our pumpkins are baked, we take them from the cooker until they are completely smooth and pass them through the blender and share them equally on our custards. We also sprinkle the walnuts on top.

Traditional Turkish Pumpkin Dessert

This is the most common of all the pumpkin foods in Turkey, and in the fall just about every restaurant will have their version of this syrupy treat.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg pumpkin
• ½ kg sugar
• Pistachio or walnuts for garnish

Slice and dice the pumpkin into the size you want. Put the pieces in a pot and sprinkle sugar over them, letting them sit overnight. Put the pot on medium heat until the pieces get soft, cooking in their own juices. Let them cool and garnish as you like. Easy!