Versatile pumpkin

Post date: 01-Nov-2014 13:39:45

While pumpkins can be stored for quite some time after harvesting, once cut, they don't keep all that well. That is why I usually buy a piece rather than a whole pumpkin. However, recently I did buy a whole pumpkin and thought I would make a few different things. It got me thinking that pumpkin is probably one of the most versatile vegetables - you can do sweet and savoury, including chutneys. There are so many different dishes that can be made from pumpkin: pumpkin soup, roast pumpkin, pumpkin gnocchi, ravioli filled with pumpkin, pumpkin curry, pumpkin chutney, pumpkin pie (both sweet and savoury), pumpkin pudding and pumpkin scones, to name just a few.

Today, I made some elcheri, which is a dish from Kerala made from yellow split peas, pumpkin and coconut. I also made some pumpkin payasam, a type of pudding. I had intended to make some pumpkin chutney as well, but ran out of time and so have frozen the remaining pumpkin to cook another time.

Dinner tonight was a vegetarian, gluten free meal: rice with elcheri, bean curry, spinach lightly sauteed with onions and garlic, tamarind chutney and yoghurt; followed by pumpkin payasam for dessert.