Greetings, it’s been a little while – not ’cause I forgot to post or anything like that but have been traveling and recording recently, and blog writing is different from songwriting. One thrives in quiet and the other naturally fuses with pockets of stillness, pressing topics and obvious sound, sometimes at full volume. Today I made roti and one of the four fillings was coconut-curry pumpkin and sweet potato.

This dish is versatile and easy to make. It has a semi-sweet accent and can be a roti or pastry filling that (if you make a decent-sized portion and have leftovers) can be remixed into a gravy to add on rice, blended into a creamy soup to sip with a slice of bread, or lightly dusted with flour and gently fried into patties that are gently crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. All that from a small pumpkin, half (or more) of a sweet potato, herbs, spices and a few other ingredients boiled down in less than an hour.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cooking Time: 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1 pumpkin

1/2 a sweet potato

1/2 onion

1/2 large sweet pepper

4 cloves of garlic (diced and whole)

3 tbsp of oil

salt and black pepper to taste

a sprinkle of brown sugar and cinnamon

a good set of coconut milk

about 1/2 cup of water

spice blend (I used curry, garam masala, jeera, fennel, kalonji seed, cumin)

fresh coriander and dry mixed herbs

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oil in a pan and when it’s hot, add sliced onion and sweet pepper (for 2 minutes) before garlic and spices. Stir well.
2. Add chunks of washed pumpkin and sweet potato. Sprinkle salt & pepper. Mix everything so the provisions absorb flavours.
3. Pour in coconut milk. Stir then add water, sprinkle of sugar, cinnamon and half of the fresh and dried herbs.
4. Cover and let boil, checking in 2 stages; first to test flavours and second (when soon ready) to smash some pumpkin & potato
5. Once everything’s boiled down, add rest of the coriander and a sprinkle of black pepper. Serve however you enjoy.

A little reminder that this coconut-curry pumpkin and sweet potato dish can make a nutritious and delicious:

• filling for roti
• stew on rice
• soup with crackers or bread
• set of ital ‘fries’ or patties

Cooking With Moringa, Harvesting Turmeric & Making Squash Soup | VLOG

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