Monday 23 November 2015

Curried Pumpkin


When I go to my regular Indian restaurant, I will take a peek at their dishes and hope that they have pumpkin. Most of the time they do. Sometimes the pumpkin is in chunks, sometimes a mixture of chunk and mush and at other times it is all mushy.

I prefer the pumpkin in chunks, where there is still some bite but I don't mind even if it was all mushy. The important thing is that the curried pumpkin tastes awesome.


Somehow, I cannot resist pumpkin whichever way it is cooked. I think pumpkin is wonderful. It is also great baked in cheesecake, butter cake and pies. 


I found this recipe in the book Indian Vegetarian Cooking by chef Devagi Sanmugam. Yes, I bought that little book when I was all fired up about becoming vegetarian. Well, you know how that turned out. But it's all good. There are many good recipes which I will try.


I deviated a little bit from the recipe in terms of the method. Other than that, I followed all the ingredients except for the fresh chili. I forgot to buy green chilies and used red instead. And oh, I also left out sugar and tamarind as I felt that they were not necessary for me.

The curried pumpkin turned out really well, but in future I will reduce the amount of turmeric powder as I found it too strong. I would also increase the amount of onions. These are reflected in the recipe below.

My curried pumpkin was on the hot side, so I guess I will have to reduce the chili powder too. Other than that, I love this curried pumpkin. Though it's not the same as the one at the restaurant, it was still pretty good in its own right.










Curried Pumpkin
Recipe source : Adapted from Indian Vegetarian Cooking (page 58)

Ingredients :
- 500g pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed and cut into 2cm cubes
- 2 dried chilies cut into 3cm pieces
- 2 sprigs curry leaves
- 2 big onions, sliced
- 2 green chilies (or red), cut into 2cm pieces
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/4 tsp fenugreek
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
- 200ml water (for simmering the pumpkins, you may need more or less)

Method :
1. Heat oil in wok and fry dried chilies until they turn brown. Remove and set aside.
2. Add curry leaves to the oil and fry briefly until sizzling stops. Remove and set aside.
3. Fry mustard seed, fennel seed and fenugreek.
4. Add sliced onions and green chilies. Saute until onion turns golden brown.
5. Add pumpkin, water, chili, cumin and turmeric powder and salt.
6. Cover and cook over medium flame until the pumpkin is tender.
7. Continue to cook uncovered until liquids are evaporated.
8. Add the fried chilies and curry leaves and give a final stir.





This post is also linked to Cook-Your-Books #28 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.

41 comments:

  1. My girl would love this! She loves pumpkin and she loved vegetable curry!

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    1. I also love vegetable curry and one day I will have to cook that as well!

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  2. selalu sy buat pumplkin sebagai pegat ajer..x pernah tau plak boleh buat curry.. lepas ni boleh try

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    1. Pumpkin memang best dalam dessert atau masakan. Cubalah masak curry, pasti suka!

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  3. You mean real Indian restaurants right? I don't think I have seen pumpkin before in mamak restaurants, and quite rarely even in BLR places. But real Indian vegetarian restaurants, yes it is a staple.

    Somehow I don't feel your pumpkin dish look very Indian. In fact, it looked very Chinese to me, hahaha!

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    1. I mean the BLR near my office. Pumpkin is quite a regular item there.

      Oh, how does an Indian pumpkin dish look like? hah..hah...hah...you are a funny one!

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  4. I like pumpkin too, but I only know how to cook with "har mai" (dried shrimps).. haha.. I used to buy pumpkins to make purees for baby food, or mixed into porridge, sedap jugak.. But yes, Indian restaurants and mamak serve very good curried pumpkin.. Sometimes they mix with dhall.. But most of the time, I'll pick their curried or kunyit-ed cabbage if I have to select one veggie.. Else, it's always mutton curry, fried chicken and hati..

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    1. I also like the one cooked with dried shrimps. At the Indian restaurant, I will always take mutton curry because that's something I don't cook at home.

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  5. When I saw your blog title, I knew instantly it must have been inspired by your recent trips for BLR. I don't eat pumpkin all that much and I never cook with them....they're so hard and so difficult to peel and cut through (from a recent experience). Yours does look like an Indian version with the presence of mustard seeds, curry leaves and dried chillies....except yours is chunky and not mushy....bet it tastes great! ;)

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    1. Oh yah, so hard hee..hee... What I do is cut them by segments first and then use a vegetable peeler to peel off the skin.

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  6. Hi Phong Hong, pumpkin cooked whatever way is always good. It has become one of my favourite ingredients for cooking or baking. Thanks for sharing this post, now I can use the idea to cook pumpkin in curry with all the spices or whatever curry paste that I have. This is a healthy dish too.

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    1. Kimmy, I hope you try this recipe. It turned out really well and I should have simmered the pumpkin a little bit longer for it to be more soft.

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  7. Yummy...would love this....curry pumpkin with rice...banana leaf rice will be perfect. Last friday I tried salted egg pumpkin. Also very nice. hehehehe

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    1. I also like the one with salted egg but that one I don't know how to cook.

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  8. pumpkins are nice.. I actually did not like pumpkins when I was young, because I used to regard that as just some "offering" to the land deity and one is placed there for months untouched till it rots, so I didn't actually think it's edible, haha!!

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    1. Ya ka? I remember it as Cinderella 's golden carriage hah..hah...

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  9. curry pumpkin sounds good.. I can imagine the combination of different tastes and flavors, the spiciness and the sweetness, also both the mushy and chunky texture of the pumpkins (I mean the way you cook it to be).. must be very appetizing and good to go with rice, banana leaf rice to be particular.. :)

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    1. This curried pumpkin is good on it's own with rice. Just this and rice and I will be happy but I know I will get hungry later hah..hah...

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  10. I love pumpkin any which way they are served too. :)

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  11. My kids love pumpkin cake but no the pumpkin dish..me too like the pumpkin in chunks.

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    1. Chunky is nicer or else it's like eating a mash.

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  12. Mmmm the combination of curry with pumpkin sounds delicious!

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    1. It is very delicious and you'll love it!

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  13. I love pumpkin tooooo... normally I put them into my soup... like ABCD... hahahaa..

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  14. I love pumpkins! I never thought that making curry is possible. Best of all, I frequented the Indian Curry Houses and never noticed pumpkins except lots of chopped potatoes and veggies. Now I can send some curry pastes to Japan and suggest my Ninja to cook them with pumpkin for added sweetness. Voila!

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    1. You've got to try it! Next time you step into Indian restaurant, keep your eyes open for curried pumpkins.

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  15. I like to eat pumpkins especially just steamed on their own - so very sweet! But curried pumpkin I will also like although I don't think I can remember eating any curried pumpkin at Indian restaurants, just those curried pumpkins my mother cooks. Yours look good, I will like it but I think maybe too spicy for me again.

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    1. It was quite spicy due to the chili powder. I will reduce it in future :)

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  16. Hi Phong Hong,
    I usually steam or roast pumpkin. I've also tried out pumpkin soup that put curry powder. I'm sure this curried pumpkin of yours taste good ... with some rice !

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    1. Karen, I love roasted pumpkin! It tastes really good too especially with bacon hee..hee..

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  17. Phong Hong, I am pumpkin crazy. Pumpkin cooked any how will do for me. Pumpkin in tong sui also nice. My eyes sparkling looking at your curried pumpkin!

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    1. Nancy, it looks like many of us simply love pumpkin!

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  18. This looks so good! I love curried potato, but I have never thought of curried pumpkin!

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  19. Hi Phong Hong,
    I'm a "pumpkin gal" too! My family love pumpkin. This curried dish looks delish, I believe I could eat a whole bowl of this just on its own!

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    1. Hi Joyce! Me too, I can just eat this curried pumpkin as my main meal :)

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