When cooking with a canned pumpkin product, read the label carefully to be sure you have the proper ingredients for your particular recipe. Cans of plain pumpkin and pumpkin pie filling are often stocked side by side in the grocery store. They may have similar-looking labels, and the two products may resemble each other in appearance -- but they have different cooking uses and are not interchangeable. Canned pumpkin is nothing but cooked, pureed pumpkin, while canned pumpkin pie filling contains sugar, salt and spices along with the pureed fruit.
Plain Canned Pumpkin
A can of plain pumpkin contains 100 percent pumpkin, and has no added salt, sugar, flavoring, coloring or preservatives. Canned pumpkin is particularly convenient during times of the year when fresh pumpkin is not available. Pumpkin is a highly nutritious food which is low in calories and rich in vitamins and fiber. An advantage of using plain canned pumpkin to make your own pies or other desserts is that you can control the amount of sugar and salt used in a dish. Most serving sizes of plain canned pumpkin contain about 40 calories, 5 g of dietary fiber, 4 g of sugars, 5 mg of sodium and 2 g of protein -- as well as 300 percent of the daily value of vitamin A.
Canned Pumpkin Pie Filling
Canned pumpkin pie filling contains pumpkin, sugar, salt and spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. The pie filling mix provides convenience and is a time-saver for the cook, especially during the busy Thanksgiving season. Because pumpkin pie mix contains other ingredients, spoonful for spoonful it is less nutritious than plain pumpkin alone. Most brands of pumpkin pie mix contain about 90 calories per serving -- more than twice that of plain pumpkin -- with 17 g of sugars and 120 mg of sodium, considerably higher than that in plain pumpkin, as well as offering less dietary fiber and protein. One serving provides about 90 percent of the daily value of vitamin A.
Plain Canned Pumpkin Uses
Plain canned pumpkin is versatile and can be used heated as is for a vegetable side dish, or as an ingredient in both sweet and savory dishes, such as puddings or soups, stews and pastas. Canned pumpkin is also delicious in baked goods like cake, cookies, coffee cakes, pancakes, breads and muffins.
Canned Pumpkin Pie Filling Uses
Because canned pumpkin pie filling already contains sweetening and flavorings, you need to only add eggs and evaporated milk to prepare a custard filling ready to pour into a pie crust and bake. If you want to use pumpkin pie filling for a dish other than pumpkin pie, it's best to follow a recipe that specifically calls for the product. Don't substitute pumpkin pie filling for plain pumpkin in a recipe, because the proportions of the ingredients will be off.
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