Kaddu (Pumpkin): Picking, Storing Whole or Cut, and Using Seeds
Buy a whole kaddu (pumpkin) with a hard rind your nail can’t dent and a dry, corky stem, and it can sit in a cool corner for one to three months. Buy a cut wedge and you’ve got a few days in the fridge at most. That difference decides how to store pumpkin, and it’s why so many wedges end up slimy in the vegetable drawer. Here’s how to pick both, store them, use the seeds, peel and flowers, what pumpkin side effects are real, and what to cook.
In brief
- Whole pumpkin: hard rind, dry stem attached, heavy, no soft spots. Keeps 1 to 3 months in a cool, dry, airy place.
- Cut wedge: deep orange, firm, moist flesh. Keeps 3 to 5 days in the fridge, wrapped.
- Frozen cubes: up to about 6 months.
- Names: halwa kaddu, meetha kaddu or peela kaddu in Pakistan; kaddu, kashiphal or sitaphal in parts of India.
- Season: harvested late summer to winter; stored pumpkins are sold much of the year.
Prefer to listen? This post as a 6 min video · Video page with transcript
Which kaddu are we talking about?
Names get confusing. Really confusing. In much of Pakistan and Punjab, plain “kaddu” means lauki (bottle gourd), and the orange one is “halwa kaddu” or “meetha kaddu”. In parts of North India, pumpkin is called “sitaphal”, which is also the name of custard apple. This guide is about the orange-fleshed pumpkin. For the green one, see how to pick tender lauki.
How to pick a whole pumpkin
- Press the rind with a nail. It should be hard and resist. A rind that dents is immature and won’t keep.
- Check the stem. Look for a dry, corky stem still attached. A missing stem leaves an open wound where rot gets in.
- Lift it. Heavy for its size means dense flesh.
- Turn it over. The underside may be paler where it lay on the ground, which is fine. Soft, wet or mouldy patches are not.
- Tap it. A mature pumpkin often sounds a little hollow. Treat this as a hint; the rind and stem tests matter more.
- Skip damage. Cracks, cuts or sunken spots shorten storage from months to days.
How to pick a cut wedge
Most people buy kaddu by the piece, cut from a big pumpkin at the stall, and that’s actually an advantage, because unlike a whole pumpkin you can see the colour of the flesh, smell the cut face and check the seed cavity before you hand over any money. Use that.
- Colour: deep yellow-orange flesh usually means a ripe, sweeter pumpkin. Pale, whitish flesh tends to be bland.
- Texture: firm and moist, with a clean cut face. Dry, cracked or wrinkled faces were cut days ago.
- Smell: fresh and faintly sweet. Sour, fermented or musty means it’s on the way out.
- Slime or white fuzz: walk away.
- Stall trap: a wedge wrapped tightly in plastic and sat in the sun sweats and rots from the cut face. Ask for a piece cut fresh if you can.
How to store pumpkin, whole or cut
| Form | Where | Keeps for |
|---|---|---|
| Whole, sound, stem on | Cool, dry, airy spot off the floor | 1 to 3 months |
| Cut wedge, seeds out | Fridge, cut face wrapped | 3 to 5 days |
| Raw cubes | Freezer, flat in a bag | About 6 months |
| Cooked or mashed | Fridge, covered | 3 to 4 days |
- Whole: don’t wash it before storing. Keep it in shade with air around it, on a shelf or on cardboard, not on a damp floor. Check it weekly for soft spots.
- Cut: scrape out seeds and stringy pulp first (they rot fastest), wrap the cut face in cling film, and refrigerate.
- To freeze: peel, cut into 2 to 3 cm cubes, spread on a tray to freeze, then bag them. Use straight from frozen in sabzi, soup or halwa.
- Use up: a soft wedge that still smells fine goes into soup or halwa the same day.
In a hot kitchen without a fridge, cut pumpkin should be cooked the same day, and if you’ve bought more than you need, cook the whole lot into khatta meetha kaddu, which keeps better as a cooked dish overnight in the coolest corner than raw wedges do. Then eat it next day. For more storage ideas, see keeping fruit and vegetables fresh.
Peel, seeds, flowers and leaves
Peel: edible once cooked, especially on thin-skinned pumpkins, and plenty of Bengali and Punjabi home cooks leave it on in sabzi, where it softens in about the same time as the flesh and adds a little extra fibre and a nice, slightly firmer bite. Thick, hard rinds are easier peeled. Wash well under running water either way.
Seeds (kaddu ke beej): worth saving. Rinse off the strings, dry the seeds on a cloth overnight and then roast them, following our guide to roasting kaddu ke beej, which has the oven temperature, the pan method and the timings worked out so they come out crisp rather than chewy. Whole seeds and nuts are a choking risk for children under 5, so grind them for little ones.
Flowers and leaves: pumpkin flowers are dipped in besan batter and fried in Bengal (kumro phool bhaja), and young pumpkin leaves are cooked as saag in parts of India and Nepal. Use only unsprayed plants you know.
What pumpkin does for you, honestly
Orange pumpkin is one of the richest everyday sources of beta-carotene, which the body turns into vitamin A for eyes, skin and normal growth. A katori of cooked pumpkin also gives fibre, potassium and some vitamin C for very few calories. That’s a genuinely good vegetable, and in households where children refuse most sabzi, a sweet, soft kaddu mash is often the one orange vegetable they will happily eat with roti, which makes it worth keeping on the weekly list rather than saving it for festivals and weddings.
What’s hype? Pumpkin as a weight-loss food on its own. Pumpkin halwa as “healthy” because there’s a vegetable in it is the other one, when what you’re mostly eating is the ghee, milk and sugar you added.
Three things to cook with kaddu
Khatta meetha kaddu (serves 4)
Heat 1 tbsp oil, add ½ tsp methi dana and ½ tsp saunf until they darken slightly. Add 500 g pumpkin cubes, ½ tsp haldi, ½ tsp red chilli, salt and ¼ cup water. Cover and cook 12 to 15 minutes, mashing lightly. Finish with 1 tsp amchur and 1 tsp gur or sugar. Eat with puri or roti.
Simple pumpkin soup (serves 3)
Soften 1 chopped onion and 2 garlic cloves in 1 tbsp oil. Add 400 g pumpkin cubes and 3 cups water, a pinch of salt and black pepper, and simmer 15 minutes. Blend smooth and add a spoon of dahi on top. A bowl with a boiled egg or roti on the side makes a light supper.
Kaddu ka halwa (serves 4)
Grate 500 g peeled pumpkin. Cook in 2 tbsp ghee for 10 minutes, add 1 cup milk and cook until dry, about 15 minutes. Stir in 4 tbsp sugar, crushed elaichi and a few chopped nuts. It’s a sweet, so keep portions small.
Good combos: pumpkin with a little fat (oil, ghee, dahi) helps the body absorb beta-carotene, and with dal or chana for protein. No real “never combine” rule applies.
Pumpkin on skin
A cooled, mashed cooked pumpkin pack is a gentle, moisturising treat. Spread 2 tbsp on clean skin, leave 10 minutes and rinse with plain water, once a week. Raw pumpkin can tingle, so use cooked. Patch test on your inner arm for 24 hours first, avoid broken or irritated skin, and stop if it stings. Don’t mix in lemon juice: citrus on skin in sunlight can burn and leave dark marks. It won’t lighten skin or remove scars.
Desi kitchens stored whole kaddu through winter, and khatta meetha kaddu with puri is a festival and wedding favourite across Punjab and North India. Kaddu ke beej were traditionally chewed for “pait ke keere” (worms), which doesn’t hold up; children with worms need proper deworming medicine, as our piece on worms in children explains. Soft cooked pumpkin is a sensible first food for babies.
Pumpkin side effects and who should limit it
Bitter pumpkin: like lauki and tori, a pumpkin can rarely be dangerously bitter from natural cucurbitacins. If cooked pumpkin tastes bitter, throw it away; severe vomiting or diarrhoea afterwards needs a doctor. Kidney disease: pumpkin has a fair amount of potassium, so ask your renal dietitian about portions. Diabetes: plain pumpkin sabzi is fine in normal portions; halwa and sweet khatta meetha are the dishes to limit. If you take diabetes medicine, don’t change it based on what you eat without asking your doctor. Orange palms: eating lots of pumpkin, carrot and papaya can tint palms and soles yellow-orange (carotenaemia). It’s harmless and fades when you eat less, but yellow eyes are different and need a doctor. Babies: no salt or sugar in pumpkin before age 1.
Myths and surprising facts
Myth: a cut pumpkin keeps as long as a whole one
Truth: the hard rind is the only thing protecting it, so the moment you slice through it the moist flesh is open to air, mould and bacteria and becomes as perishable as any soft vegetable in your fridge. Cut means days.
Myth: kaddu ke beej clear worms
Truth: there’s no reliable evidence they do. Deworming tablets from a doctor or pharmacist do the job properly, in a single short course, and relying on roasted seeds instead only means the worms stay longer while a child keeps losing appetite, sleep and iron. Use the tablets.
Did you know? Botanically, a pumpkin is a berry, a type called a pepo, just like cucumber and watermelon.
Did you know? Pumpkin, lauki, tori, karela and kheera all belong to one plant family, the cucurbits, which is why the bitter-gourd warning applies to all of them.
More in Fruits and Vegetables.
Pumpkin questions answered
How to store pumpkin after cutting?
Scoop out the seeds and strings, wrap the cut face in cling film, and keep it in the fridge. Use it within 3 to 5 days, or cube and freeze it.
How long does a whole pumpkin last?
A sound pumpkin with a hard rind and stem attached keeps 1 to 3 months in a cool, dry, airy place. Any crack or soft spot shortens that sharply.
What are the side effects of eating pumpkin?
For most people there are none at normal portions. Very large amounts can tint skin orange, a rare bitter pumpkin can cause stomach illness, and people with kidney disease may need to limit it for potassium.
Is pumpkin good for diabetics?
Plain cooked pumpkin in a normal katori portion fits a diabetes plate. It’s the sugar in halwa and sweet sabzi that causes spikes, so keep those small.
Can I freeze pumpkin?
Yes. Peel and cube it, freeze on a tray, then bag it, and it keeps about 6 months. Frozen pumpkin is softer, so use it in sabzi, soup or halwa.
Can we eat pumpkin skin?
Yes, once cooked, especially thin skins. Very hard rinds are unpleasant to chew, so peel those.
How do I know if a cut pumpkin has gone bad?
Slime on the cut face, a sour or fermented smell, mould, or soft, watery flesh means bin it. Slight drying at the edge can be trimmed off.
Can babies eat pumpkin?
Yes, from 6 months, steamed and mashed smooth with no salt or sugar. It’s one of the most common first vegetables.
Is pumpkin good in pregnancy?
Cooked pumpkin is a nourishing vegetable in pregnancy. Its vitamin A comes as beta-carotene, which doesn’t carry the risks of high-dose vitamin A supplements.
Why does my pumpkin taste bland?
It was probably picked early or is a watery variety. Pale flesh is the usual clue, so choose deep orange wedges next time and cook with a little gur and amchur.
Is sitaphal pumpkin or custard apple?
Both, depending on where you are. In parts of North India sitaphal means pumpkin; elsewhere it means custard apple, the sweet green fruit with black seeds.