If your thoughts of pumpkin are on pies, a Cooperative Extension expert says there are many ways to prepare it — and many nutritional benefits from consuming it.

You may be familiar with the term superfood — food rich in nutrients such as antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, etc., that can contribute to improved health. Probably what comes to mind is various fruits and vegetables, fish, among other foods. But with this being fall, perhaps a superfood you may not consider — or even know about — is pumpkin.

“If you’re someone who really, really enjoys cooking, you can buy pumpkin when it’s fresh in the fall and prepare it easily to be frozen so that you can use it throughout the year.”

Carol Connell of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System adds that pumpkin is available year-round in supermarkets and retailers. When it comes to nutrition:

“It’s really quite nutrient-dense, which just means that it packs a lot of nutrients, like vitamins and minerals, for every calorie that it contributes to the diet.”

Among pumpkin’s many key nutrients:

“A cup of the canned pumpkin with no added salt provides only about 83 calories, but it’s packed with things like dietary fiber. It’s a really good source of the mineral potassium, which is an important mineral in blood pressure regulation and muscle contractions. It’s high in vitamin A, which is good for vision as well as immunity. And it also provides minerals like iron, zinc and magnesium, which are really important in things like red blood cell production and wound healing. And magnesium is important in muscle relaxation.”

In addition: “It’s low in fat naturally before we add lots of things to it. So what you find in the produce stands — fresh pumpkin, as well as canned pumpkin — is a low-fat product, and it’s also a good source of vitamin K, which is an important vitamin for blood clotting and bone health.”

Now you may be thinking: That’s an awful lot of pumpkin pie to eat. Or, that pumpkin-spiced anything that doesn’t have pumpkin doesn’t count.

Connell reminds us pumpkin is a versatile fruit with many ways to prepare it. And yes, I said fruit.

“It’s actually a fruit because it grows from a flower that has to be pollinated by pollinating insects like bees.”

So back to the various methods of cooking, preparing and enjoying pumpkin — minus adding lots of fat and sugar.

“Fresh pumpkin can be peeled and de-seeded and cubed and then roasted with other vegetables like bell peppers or mushrooms or onions for a savory type of dish that’s really, really quite good with things like pork chops and baked chicken and that sort of thing. If you don’t have time to cook fresh pumpkin, you can always buy the canned or the pureed pumpkin, and it has many uses too. You can make warm, cozy, fall-type cream soups with pumpkins. You can make pumpkin bread or muffins or even pumpkin smoothies for breakfast to get the nutritional benefits of pumpkin that way as well.”