This pumpkin and coconut cream curry is lightly spiced and another great recipe that uses home grown pumpkin. It is easy to make and extremely versatile – I change up the vegetables depending on what is growing in the vegetable garden, make a lighter version using coconut milk instead of coconut cream, make it spicier by adding chili, or make it ‘meat-atarian’ by adding 4 chicken thighs.
This recipe is perfect for warming you up on a cool Autumn day, served with hot steaming rice or fresh bread – do give it a go!
I leave chili out of this recipe and served with some fresh rice and a sprinkle of soy sauce, even kids love it. And as with all new recipes, some evolve out of happenstance, with this particular recipe, one day I had run out of split red lentils, but I had a bag of dried mung beans. I sprinkled some of the dried mung beans in my curry and not only did the mung beans work a treat to thicken-up the curry sauce and add a protein content, I found they also cooked and softened a lot quicker than dried red lentils I usually use. Now dried mung beans are my go-to dried legume to sprinkle through curries.
Pumpkin and coconut cream curry
Equipment
- 1 cast iron pan or large stainless steel pot
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp olive oil
Spices
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp dried mild curry powder
- 1 tbsp dried cumin powder
- 1 tbsp dried coriander powder
- 1 tbsp dried basil
- 2 400mL cans of coconut cream
Vegetables
- 4 carrots
- 1 onion
- 4 stalks celery
- 1 green capsicum bell pepper
- 2 wedges pumpkin
Other
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 cup dried mung beans
Instructions
- Sauté (gently fry on low heat) the spices, garlic, onions and carrots in the oil. I also like to add a little water and one of the cans of coconut cream to allow the spices to steam with the onions and carrots in the pan, preventing them burning while they sauté.
- Add the remaining vegetables and stock, simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add the dried mung beans, second can of coconut cream and soy sauce and simmer for a further 20 minutes, stirring to make sure the curry doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. If the curry is getting a little dry and the mung beans have not yet softened, add a cup or two of water.
- Once the mung beans and pumpkin are soft and cooked through the curry is ready.
- Serve with freshly cooked rice (my favourite is Jasmine rice) and an extra splash of soy sauce.
Notes
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