It has been too long since I’ve continued my quest for the perfect grilled cheese sandwich, but the hunt is on again.

I focused on the filling for this Pumpkin Grilled Cheese sandwich. I knew I wanted something seasonal and pumpkin seemed like an appropriate choice.

Here’s the good news: It’s freakin’ delicious.

Here’s the bad news: You’ll have to roast  your own pumpkin. Sorry… no canned stuff for this recipe.

If you want another great fall grilled cheese option, check out this Apple and Brie Grilled Cheese Sandwich!

Pumpkin Grilled Cheese

3.37 from 22 votes
Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 4 Servings
Prep Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Baked pumpkin spread with gruyere cheese and a spice blend makes for a fantastic grilled cheese sandwich!

Ingredients 

  • 1 4 pound pumpkin, roasted (½ cup pumpkin per sandwich)
  • 8-12 ounces gruyere cheese, grated
  • 8 slices sourdough bread
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon paprika

Instructions

  • Split pumpkin in half and scrape out seeds and guts. Save seeds for roasting if you want!
  • Roast pumpkin cut-side down in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30 minutes. Turn pumpkin cut side up and roast for another 30 minutes.
  • Let pumpkin cool slightly and then scoop out flesh from pumpkin. Mash roughly with a fork. You’ll need about ½ cup of pumpkin mash for each sandwich.
  • Stir together brown sugar and spices in a small bowl.
  • Butter one side of each piece of bread. Add buttered side of one piece to a large skillet over medium heat.
  • Scoop on ½ cup of pumpkin and spread it evenly over the bread. Sprinkle generously with spice mixture. Top with grated cheese. Add top piece of bread, buttered side up.
  • Cook sandwich over medium heat for about 5 minutes per side until the bread is nicely browned and the cheese melted.
  • Cut and serve immediately!

Nutrition

Serving: 1Sandwich | Calories: 697kcal | Carbohydrates: 70g | Protein: 31g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 92mg | Sodium: 1768mg | Potassium: 225mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 1303IU | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 648mg | Iron: 5mg
Course: Main Dishes
Cuisine: American

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Pumpkin Grilled Cheese

The Pumpkin

The reason I think the canned pumpkin won’t work for this recipe is that it’s too runny. It’ll just be a complete mess on the inside of a sandwich.

On the other hand, roasted pumpkin is nice and thick and doesn’t have as much liquid so it works well as a filling.

You obviously don’t need a huge pumpkin for this. About a four pound pumpkin will give you enough baked flesh for 4-6 sandwiches.

While it does take some time to roast the pumpkin, it’s far from hard. Just slice it in half down the middle and then scoop out the seeds and guts. I recommend saving the seeds for roasting as a snack.

cleaned pumpkin for Pumpkin Grilled Cheese
Save the seeds!

Then just bake the pumpkin at 350 degrees F, cut side down, for about thirty minutes. Then flip the pumpkin so the cut side is up and bake it for another 30 minutes.

Finishing it cut side up will dry out the pumpkin which will help us later on!

baked for Pumpkin Grilled Cheese
After about an hour.

Once the pumpkin has cooled a bit you can scoop out the flesh. I got about a cup and a half of flesh for each half of pumpkin.

Once it’s scooped out just mash it roughly in a bowl. Notice how thick it is compared to the canned stuff.

mashed pumpkin - Pumpkin Grilled Cheese
The pumpkin mash.

Sandwich Making

Once the pumpkin is roasted, the rest of this Pumpkin Grilled Cheese is pretty straightforward.

As always, I recommend using a nice sturdy bread (I used sourdough).

ingredients for Pumpkin Grilled Cheese
Basics!

I mixed up a quick spice blend with brown sugar, paprika, chili powder, and salt that I used to season the sandwich. It totally made it in my opinion.

Build your sandwich by buttering some bread and setting it in a skillet over medium heat. Make sure the buttered side is down obviously. Then pile on a good amount of pumpkin filling and generously sprinkle the pumpkin with the spice blend.

seasoning - Pumpkin Grilled Cheese
Action shot.

When I say generous, I mean generous.

This is how much spice blend I used for my two sandwiches.

spiced Pumpkin Grilled Cheese
Go heavy on it.

Then pile on your cheese! Grating the cheese helps it melt easily.

Gruyere Pumpkin Grilled Cheese
Gotta gruyere it.

Slap on the top piece of bread (buttered) and grill it over medium heat.

Temperature is key when you are cooking a grilled cheese. If you cook it too hot, the bread will burn before the cheese melts. It should take about five minutes per side to finish cooking the sandwiches.

grilling - Pumpkin Grilled Cheese
Not too hot!

Once they come out of the skillet, just chop the sandwiches in half which makes them easier to eat.

Pumpkin Grilled Cheese Recipe from Macheesmo
Makes it easier to eat.

This is definitely one of my favorite grilled cheeses I’ve made.

Sure the roasting step is a bit annoying, but it’s totally worth it. If you have any extra roasted pumpkin, it will store very nicely in the fridge for a week or so or you could even freeze half of a pumpkin if you wanted.

If you’re in a sandwich rut, give this Pumpkin Grilled Cheese a shot!

Pumpkin Grilled Cheese Sandwich - Fresh roasted pumpkin slathered with spices and gooey cheese in one of my favorite fall grilled cheeses.