Fall is here, as is pumpkin and gourd harvest season. We are shopping for gourds, whether green, white, orange, or yellow, smooth, lumpy, or perfectly spherical. What’s a more fun and classic fall activity than gourd painting for Halloween and Thanksgiving? Painting gourds and pumpkins is a safer activity for kiddos than carving, and the decorations last a lot longer. However, are these festive gourds edible when it’s time to take down the decorations? Is it safe to cook and eat painted gourds? Find out here.
Can You Cook With a Painted Gourd?
Gourds are part of the Cucurbitaceae family, alongside watermelon, cucumbers, and summer and winter squashes. You’ll often see the terms pumpkin, squash, and gourd used interchangeably because of their close relationship, although ornamental gourds are typically categorized by their thick skin and unpredictable shapes. The main difference between gourds and pumpkins (which are in the same squash family) is that gourds are usually grown as decorations, while pumpkins and other squashes are grown to be eaten. However, some gourd varieties are edible.
Trying to eat these lumpy, misshapen, and sometimes small gourds is often more work than it’s worth due to the tough exteriors with minimal edible flesh and seeds, unlike a meaty pumpkin. Also, it’s a toss-up whether the flesh you pull from these ornamental treasures will be tasty. Some varieties may offer a subtle sweetness similar to zucchini, while others taste acrid and bitter. Some are not edible at all.
Some gourd/squash varieties are more appetizing than others. These include:
- Luffa (or loofah), also known as sponge gourd or rag gourd
- Calabash, also known as bottle gourd
- Cushaw squash, also known as silver-seed gourd
- Blue hubbard squash
- Turban squash, also known as French turban
These gourds are tasty and easy to cut into. Of particular note is that the younger the gourd, the easier it is to cut and the better the flavor—important aspects to consider if you’re planning to cook a gourd that’s been sitting on the mantle for two months.
Can you eat a gourd or pumpkin that’s been painted? It may come as no surprise that eating paint is a bad idea. That said, if you use non-toxic paint that can be fully washed off before cooking, it is OK to eat the gourd left behind. Another option is to remove all the painted skin before cooking. An even better route is to opt for homemade paints made from food-grade dyes, eliminating any concern surrounding the safety of the paint itself. After the paint is gone, you can enjoy both the flesh and seeds of these gourds.
Ways to Use Painted Gourds
When it comes to cooking painted gourds, it’s a matter of weighing your anticipated returns. Will the paint wash off easily? Can you cut through the gourd without your knife snapping in half? Does the gourd look big enough to provide enough flesh and seeds to be worth it? If the answer to these questions is yes, then there are a few ways to cook them.
Before beginning, make sure the gourd you want to use hasn’t been sprayed with preserving spray and is free of visual blemishes or rot from sitting on the ground. Then, peel the gourd; this may be quite a task, but this step is important as the skins can be bitter. Next, cut open the gourd and remove all the stringy membranes and seeds, saving the seeds for later. Place the gourd halves on a baking sheet and cook at 350°F until it is easily pierced with a knife. The time will vary depending on the size and variety of the gourd.
As an alternative, boil the flesh for at least 20 minutes. If you’re cooking a decorative gourd variety, cook it past the tender point to reduce any bitterness lingering in the flesh. Then, add it to soups, curries, stews, baked goods, pastas, and risottos.
Clean the seeds in water, dry them with a towel, and spread them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment. Sprinkle with salt and a little oil, and bake at 325°F for approximately an hour, turning halfway through. This process yields a satisfyingly crunchy product that can be made into trail mix, used as a topping similar to croutons on soups, salads, and pastas, or snacked on as is.
If you don’t want to eat painted gourds, you have other options: compost them or donate them to a local farm for animal feed. With both these options, you must remove the paint first as a safety precaution.
While the food-waste-reduction angle of eating painted gourds is admirable, let’s face it: they won't be nearly as delicious or easy to prepare as relatives like butternut squash or zucchini. Although some gourd varieties are tastier than others, the barrier to entry of scrubbing off the paint, peeling the skin, and cracking into them is likely too high for many of us. However, if you’d like to try it with one of the edible varieties mentioned here, more power to you! No kitchen experiment is a waste of time in our book. The safest bet is to eat a pumpkin, not a gourd. It will be easier to clean, peel, and cook, and it will ultimately taste better.
So, despite the seasonal charm of these cornucopia-worthy painted gourds, they may best be suited for decoration and then the compost (after washing!) rather than the dinner table.