Today we’re doing something a little bit unusual, and juicing a pumpkin.
I know, it’s bizarre.
Just go with it.
See, I’ve been re-reading the Harry Potter series and can’t get the idea of a cold, refreshing glass of iced pumpkin juice out of my head. A quick internet search reveals that I’m not the only one to be curious about the pumpkin juice of Potter-lore, and in fact, it’s served at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and there are hundreds (yes, hundreds) of recipes for homemade Harry Potter-esque pumpkin juice online.
And yet, none of them seem quite right to me. Every single one calls for mixing canned pumpkin puree with sugar, water, and spices, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like making juice out of cooked fruit is like a science experiment gone wrong. I mean, you wouldn’t mix applesauce with water and call it apple juice, would you?
No, you would not.
So I stubbornly refused to do the same with pumpkin.
Instead, I decided to make a fresh pumpkin juice in the blender following the same process as I do to make my homemade Carrot Apple Ginger Juice– that is, by pureeing it with water, straining through a fine mesh sieve, and serving over ice- but found, unsurprisingly, that straight up raw pumpkin juice is, frankly, exactly as you’d imagine: pretty unpalatable.
Since I had already wholeheartedly committed to this whole lets juice a pumpkin thing, I decided to pair the pumpkin with two ingredients I always have in the fridge this time of year: fresh ginger and fresh turmeric. These add a kick of spice, extra bright orange flavor, and some super immune-boosting properties to the juice. They also help to mellow out the flavor of the pumpkin juice, and make it feel like we’re drinking this strange juice for the sake of health, not because I’m too stubborn to give up on my Harry Potter dreams.
Finally, a drizzle of raw honey is added to balance out of spice, and a tiny pinch of black pepper gets stirred in, just to help make the turmeric more easily absorbed by our bodies.
And, while I’m not sure if the Hogwarts house elves used this exact recipe, I’m happy to report that, with a hint of ginger and honey, this pumpkin juice is absolutely as thirst-quenching as the one in the novels.
If you make it, let me know what you think! Leave a comment below, or take a picture of your pretty pumpkin juice and share it with me on Instagram. I love seeing my recipes in your kitchen!