Healthy thanksgiving side dishes ? roasted pumpkin

Ingredients

• 1 Sugar Pie Pumpkin (size depends on number of people you’re serving)
• Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt

Manchego Pesto:

• 1/4 Cup Raw Pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)
• 1/4 Cup Manchego Cheese (cut to small cubes)
• 2 Cloves Roasted Garlic
• Kosher Salt
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• Olive Oil

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Preparation

• Preheat Oven to 500 degrees Farenheit. Cut pumpkin in half from the top (stem) down.
• Clean out the seeds and strings from inside the pumpkin. Save seeds for later roasting.
• Slice pumpkin into 3/4″ – 1″ wedges and peel off skin with peeler. Place pumpkin slices on large baking sheet.
• Drizzle olive oil over the top of the pumpkin. Using your hands, rub the oil onto all of the slices.
• Place garlic cloves into a small piece of foil. Drizzle olive oil over the garlic. Close up the foil around the garlic cloves leaving a seam on top.
• Place pumpkin and garlic into the oven. Cook for 25 – 30 minutes. (This time could vary depending on the moisture content of your pumpkin.
• It’s done when the edges are a golden brown.). Remove pumpkin and garlic from the oven.
• While the pumpkin is cookin. Add the pepitas, garlic, a pinch of kosher salt, a few grinds of black pepper and 2 tablespoons of olive oil to your food processor (should use a small processor, but could also use a mortar and pestle).
• Turn on the processor and puree until pepitas are still in large chunks. Add the manchego cheese to the processor and 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
• Puree until pepitas are quite small but manchego is still fairly chunky. Continue adding olive oil until the desired consistency is reached.
• To serve, place several pieces of pumpkin on a plate and drizzle with pesto.