I didn’t plant any pumpkins to grow this year but 2 grew in pots where I had used my homemade compost, the seeds must have been in the compost from last year’s harvest!! I love it when nature gives me surprises. I’m not a fan of wasting pumpkins to turn into lanterns and as I only had 2 small home-grown ones I wanted to make something delicious and warming to eat. There are plenty of spices in this dish to create a mild curried flavour, you could always add chilli to heat it up though.

Ingredients – serves 4

Yield 1.3Lk

Time approx 1hr

Pumkin Dhal

• 500g roasted pumpkin (deseeded, peeled & chopped)
• 1 cup (250g) red lentils
• 3 cups water
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 chopped onion
• 4 cloves  garlic – crushed
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 500g  medium-size tomatoes (chopped into large chunks)
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp salt to taste
• 1 handful fresh coriander for garnish
• 4 dstspn roasted pumpkin seeds for garnish

Spinach Rice-

• 300g brown basmati rice- cooked
• 4 handfuls fresh spinach-  wilted

Method

1. Deseed, peel and chop the pumpkin and roast in the oven at 200C for approx. 30 min until softened and beginning to brown.
2. Put the pumpkin seeds in the oven at the same time and dry roast for 20-25 min until start to brown and crack.
3. Rinse lentils and add to a medium-size pan with the water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for approx. 10 minutes.
4. Boil the brown basmati rice until tender approx. 22 minutes.
5. Heat oil in a large pan and add the cumin seeds and cook until fragrant, approx 1 minute.
6. Add the onions and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes until the onions are translucent.
7. Add spices and cook for a minute.
8. Add tomatoes and cook for approx. 5 minutes.
9. Stir in roasted pumpkin, cooked lentils and lime juice. If the consistency is too thick, add a bit of water and heat through.
10. Drain the rice and stir through the fresh spinach and allow to wilt for a few minutes.

Serve the pumpkin dhal with brown basmati rice & spinach and garnish with fresh coriander and 1dstspn pumpkin seeds per portion.