Food

Lilly Higgins’s pumpkin sabzi: A delicious dry-spiced Indian dish that you’ll cook over and over again

Spend Less, Eat Well: Make the most of those seasonal pumpkins with this easy vegan dish

Pumpkin Sabzi, Lilly Higgins

Lilly Higgins's face
Lilly Higgins
Mon Oct 24 2022 - 05:00

Pumpkin sabzi, also known as kaddu ki sabzi, is a delicious dry spiced Indian dish made using pumpkin and herbs. It’s very simple and is a handy recipe to have in your repertoire this time of year when pumpkins are plentiful. I love pumpkin curries made with coconut milk, tomatoes and plenty of spice, but this dry version makes a fantastic side dish or main course served alongside rice, roti or naan. You can add some freshly chopped tomatoes and vegetables like peas or spinach too.

The key to perfecting this dish is to keep the heat low and add a little water if it starts to dry out. Don’t overcook it as you want the pumpkin to stay in cubes for this dish. Leftovers are delicious mashed though. I love reheating it and serving this like a mash with roast chicken, or using it to stuff samosas.

This is very quick to make once you have the pumpkin prepared. It’s worth prepping entire pumpkins all at once and storing the cubed pumpkin in the fridge. Like so many people, I’m now converted to using an air fryer. I’ve found it quite transformative in how I cook, particularly as I’ve never had a microwave and the air fryer is so convenient for reheating food. I cut small pumpkins in half and pop them in the air fryer, cut side down, to cook for 25 minutes. Then I scoop out the soft cooked flesh and blitz it to a smooth purée. This is perfect for pies, cakes and breads as well as soup. Transforming the gourds into a purée is a great way of preserving pumpkins. You can freeze the purée in blocks or tubs for later use.

Pumpkin also makes a lovely jam. A Syrian family in Jordan once gave me a jar of delicious pumpkin jam that they had made. It sat alongside pickled walnut stuffed aubergines, makdous, and jars of multi-coloured pickles and labneh balls. It’s so good flavoured with a touch of rose water or cinnamon and orange zest.

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Recipe: Pumpkin sabzi

Lilly’s Kitchen Tips:

  • Discard the pumpkin seeds in the compost or save them for toasting; you can also dry them for planting next year.
  • Preserve your pumpkins by brushing vinegar on the outside to prevent them from rotting. They’ll still be edible for a long time this way.
  • Look for small round pumpkins, these are the ideal ones for eating and baking with.
  • Grate raw pumpkin as you would carrot and add to your usual carrot cake batter.
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