This time of year a lot of pumpkin-based recipes are appearing, so I am going to share one, for Pumpkin Baklava, which is an interesting merge of a pumpkin strudel with a syrupy baklava. The recipe is naturally vegan.

It looks lovely and it is interesting. It is very similar to a standard baklava, but a bit more moist due to the pumpkin filling. I think this is worth trying, so here is the recipe:

Ingredients for 20 pieces of pumpkin baklava:

– 1 pack of filo pastry (7 sheets)
– 130g walnuts
– 500g prepared pumpkin (around 1kg whole pumpkin)
– 1 tbs cinnamon
Ingredients for the syrup:
– 250g sugar
– 300ml water
– 1 tbs of lemon juice

Wash, cut, remove the seeds, and peal the skin of the pumpkin. Grate it. Heat up a pan with a spoon of oil and toss the pumpkin shavings in. Cook it until it softens and stir from time to time so it doesn’t catch the bottom of the pan. Remove it from the hob and leave it to cool. The pumpkin filling needs to be cold before it can be used in the strudel.

Meanwhile you can prepare the walnuts. You can blitz the walnuts in the food processor, but not too fine, to have some texture. Alternatively you can put them in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin.

Preheat the oven at 170C or 150C for fan ovens.

Mix the walnuts with the pumpkin paste and the cinnamon. You can add more than 1 tsp if you fancy a more intense taste of cinnamon.

Oil the tray. Lay 4 filo sheets on the bottom of the pan. You can fold them if they are not exactly the same size of the bottom.

Spread the pumpkin filling evenly over the filo sheets. Place the remaining 3 filo sheets on top. If they are larger than the pan fold them inside. Use your palm to press the filo pastry into the pumpkin mix. Cut the baklava into squares and put it in the oven for 40 minutes, or until golden brown.

While the baklava is baking, make the syrup by placing the sugar with the water and lemon juice in a saucepan over high heat. Leave it on high heat until the sugar is dissolved, then reduce the heat and leave it to bubble for 10 minutes.

When the baklava is ready, take it out of the oven and leave it to cool for 10 minutes. Pour the syrup on top and leave it for an hour so the syrup is soaked into the baklava. Ideally leave the baklava overnight in the fridge.

What do you think about a Pumpkin Baklava? Is it something you might be entice to try?