Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Never judge a pumpkin by its looks!

M probably would say this to someone after he ate the pumpkin kootu I made the other day! He doesn't care much for the poor old plain veggie - the pumpkin. I don't really blame him, see he doesn't cook much and so he cannot do what I mostly do - work out a mental recipe while I look at veggies at the market. To him, it will always be the boring, plain looking, least appetising thing. To me, it's what in season now, fresh, in it's prime of life and cheap! So I was adamant to buy it and make something nice. I made this very very simple kootu (veggies cooked in a lentil and spice gravy) and it changed the way we look at pumpkins!



  • 2 cups diced (peeled) pumpkin - any variety. I used kent pumpkin - it's skin is green and has streaks of creamy yellow (see picture, source: www.moraitis.com.au)
  • 1 cup cooked toor dal
For tempering -
  • 1 tbspn oil
  • 1/4 tspn mustard seeds
  • a pinch of hing
  • a few curry leaves
  • 2 red (dry) chillies
  • 1/4 tspn turmeric powder
  • 1 small onion, sliced
To grind into a paste -
  • 1/4 cup grated coconut (can use desiccated coconut as well)
  • a small piece of ginger
  • 3-4 green chillies
  • 1/2 tspn jeera (cumin seeds)
  • a handful of fresh green coriander/cilantro
  1. Microwave (or cook) the pumpkin till soft.
  2. Meanwhile, grind the ingredients mentioned above into a paste.
  3. Heat oil in a pot and add all the ingredients for tempering in the order mentioned above.
  4. Once the onion is cooked, add cooked pumpkin, cooked toor dal and the ground masala paste.
  5. Add salt to taste and water to adjust consistency. Kootu is generally a fairly thick gravy, so do not add too much water.
  6. Serve hot with rice and papad.
I'm so thrilled with this recipe, for two reasons - I can now incorporate pumpkin in our menu and M sheepishly accepted that it tasted good :)

5 comments:

kitchen queen said...

In tamil we call it parangikai kootu.Your kootu looks delicious and yummy to have with hot rice.

Divya Rao said...

Thanks Kitchen Queen :) I thought it was called 'poosnikai kootu', is that a different variety of pumpkin?

vidhas said...

Lovley, yummy kootu,.I used to make subzi with this. Let me try this next time. pusunikai kootu means white pumkin Or safeth peda kootu.

Divya Rao said...

Thanks Vidhya :) Yeah, I remember now...we don't get the white pumpkin here, but I used to love the sambar my mother used to make with white poosnikai.

3 hungry tummies said...

I have a pumpkin sitting around , must try this :)

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