Add Peanut Butter To Your Pumpkin Dishes For Extra Layers Of Flavors

Pumpkin is the unofficial official flavor of fall. As the leaves start to change color, hay-lined pumpkin patches spring up from the green pastures at local farms and coffee shops around the nation transform their menus into tapestries of pumpkin spice-infused provisions. Although it's an autumnal essential, there are no rules against zhuzhing up pumpkin recipes with complementary ingredients for deeper flavors. Enter peanut butter, the creamy pantry staple that takes your favorite pumpkin dishes from basic to bountiful.

Pumpkin flaunts a mild-mannered and earthy taste accented by subtle whispers of sweetness. Introducing peanut butter to pumpkin-centric recipes gives the dish a luscious layer of deep, nutty richness that amplifies the gourd's sweetness and adds depth to its reserved flavor. When combined, peanut butter and pumpkin culminate in a creamy, fatty mouthfeel that makes each forkful a luxurious and full-bodied bite. Not to mention that both ingredients have a folksy, rustic appeal to them, making them not just compatible in flavor and texture, but in character to boot.

Incorporating peanut butter into pumpkin dishes is a relatively easy step in the cooking or baking process. However, it's important to be mindful of the brands you select. While those containing added sugar and palm oil can enrich and sweeten up certain recipes, the naturally toasty taste of pure peanut butter is unbeatable.

What good is a great idea if it's not put into action? While pumpkin and peanut butter are a great pairing in theory, you'll need some flavor-forward ideas for combining them into a satiating plate of fall-inspired goodness.

For dinner, try out a Thai peanut butter and pumpkin soup embellished with coconut cream, red Thai curry, and sriracha for a fiery and flavor-packed spoonable dish that's as complex as it is cozy. Top with crushed peanuts for an apt edible garnish for a crunchy textural contrast. If soup isn't your thing, build a Thanksgiving-inspired sandwich with whole roasted turkey trimmings, pumpkin purée, peanut butter, spinach, and melted brie sandwiched between two toasty slices of whole-grain bread for a sweet and savory handheld meal that's bold but never brash.

Of course, you can't have dinner without dessert. Drizzle a spiral of peanut butter atop a cinnamon-dusted pumpkin pie or prepare a stack of pumpkin pancakes smothered with the toasty nut butter and a generous helping of pure maple syrup. For something even sweeter, blend cream cheese and peanut butter for your next pumpkin cream cake.

Why stop at dinner and dessert when you can combine pumpkin and peanut butter into a sippable pick-me-up to start your day? Transform your DIY pumpkin spice latte into a shaken espresso-inspired beverage with the creamy touch of peanut butter. Regardless of the season, pumpkin and peanut butter are a match made in culinary heaven.