Vegetarian Culinarian

I was on Our Family Eats last night, and found an awesome homemade pumpkin creamer. Loving autumn and all things pumpkin, I was ecstatic to find this idea of using pureed pumpkin in coffee, instead of buying the heavily-sugared stuff from Starbucks. I didn’t have all of the ingredients though (the dairy or maple syrup), so I mixed up mine with soy milk and agave nectar. It was incredible, and by itself tasted like a thick, creamy pumpkin eggnog, sans egg. Who needs to add coffee? 🙂 I’ve had three cups of it today, and the day isn’t over yet.

Basic ingredients:
soy milk
pureed pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
agave nectar
autumn spices such as cinnamon, clove, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg

The ratios are up to you and your individual tastes. You may like more or less pumpkin, more or less agave nectar, and you’ll probably use the spices you have on hand. If you have a pumpkin pie spice, that would work, too. Here’s what I do for an individual cup:

Into a mug, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin (I used the 365 Organic brand). I’d start with 1/4 then add more if it wasn’t thick enough. Mix in a tiny pinch each of ground clove, ground nutmeg, and ground ginger, and a pinch each of cinnamon and ground cardamom. I would opt on the teeny tiny side and then you can add more spice if you need to. If you mix the spices in with the pumpkin first, it will help them to incorporate into the cold soy milk. Not to worry if you don’t have all of those spices sitting around. You can also just use cinnamon, or any combination. Fill the rest of the mug with cold soy milk (I’m sure almond would work, too). Mix with a mini-whisk, then add a few tablespoons of agave nectar to taste. I squirt my in straight from the bottle. I haven’t tried it with maple syrup or honey, but I’m sure those would work, as well. Happy Autumn!