Chermoula pumpkin with quinoa and yogurt

This was hands down my favorite dish that we cooked during my class at the Agrarian Kitchen. A perfect mixture of spicy, savory and sweet, the flavors are rich and complement each other well.

Ingredients:

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

2 tsp chili flakes

2 tsp sweet paprika

1/3 cup finely chopped preserved lemon skin

280 ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to drizzle

½ medium sized pumpkin (note: if buying in America, go to an Asian market and look for the squat green-skinned pumpkin, not a standard orange American pumpkin.)

300 gm quinoa

100 gm sultanas (raisins)

40 gm fresh coriander, chopped plus extra to serve

20 gm fresh mint, chopped

60 gm flaked almonds, toasted

4 spring onions, chopped

60 ml (1/2) cup lemon juice.

240 gm Greek yogurt, plain

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. In a bowl combine garlic, cumin, coriander, chili, paprika, preserved lemon, two-thirds of the olive oil and 1 tsp salt. This is the chermoula, set aside until required.
3. Cut the pumpkin into wedges or rounds, leaving the skin intact. Scoop out the seeds and discard.
4. Spoon the chermoula over each half, spreading it evenly, and place on a baking tray cut side up. Road pumpkin until very soft, about 40 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, cook the quinoa as described on the box, or in a manner similar to how you would cook rice. I prefer to cook with chicken stock added to the water for better flavor. Once cooked, fluff with fork and set aside.
6. Soak raisins in 100 ml warm water for 10 minutes, then drain and add to quinoa with remaining oil, herbs, almonds, spring onion, lemon juice and season to taste with sea salt.
7. Serve pumpkin warm or at room temperature topped with quinoa, spoonfuls of yogurt, scattered with coriander and a drizzle of the extra virgin olive oil.

Ultimate Spiced Pumpkin Bread Recipe

This is one of my all-time favorite spice bread recipes. Its from the Joy of Cooking, but I always adapt it to add more spice to let all the flavors really pop. Perfect for breakfast year round, but especially nice in fall. For a more autumnal flavor you can even add a tbsp of pure maple syrup (ideally Grade B).

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c flour

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2-1 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp baking powder

—

1/3 cup water or milk (I use water)

1 tsp vanilla

—

6 tbsp butter

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 can pumpkin puree

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×5-in loaf pan and set aside.
2. Whisk together dry ingredients, or the first set listed above. 
3. In another bowl, combine vanilla and water/milk.
4. In a large bowl beat room-temperature butter until creamy. Once creamed, add sugar. 
5. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
6. Add pumpkin puree.
7. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture in three parts, alternating with the water/milk mixture in two parts until smooth. 
8. Bake for about one hour, checking often after 45 minutes. Loaf is done when you can insert a toothpick into the loaf and have it come out clean.
9. This would be super yummy with a cream cheese glaze or light sugar/maple sugar glaze. Enjoy!

Serves 12-15

Thai Pumpkin Curry

Last summer I went to Thailand and did an awesome little cooking course at a restaurant affiliated with the fabulous Elephant Nature Park. The restaurant was called Taste From Heaven, and although the restaurant was all vegetarian and the recipes we got form the cooking course include textured soy protein or tofu, you can substitute chicken or other meat products when you do the cooking at home. I also tend to use more pumpkin than originally called for, but that makes the curry very thick.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp red curry paste

2 cups Asian Pumpkin

1 chicken breast

10 sweet basil leaves

5 kaffir lime leaves, stems removed

1 big chili (I didn’t have a big one on hand, but it would have been a better idea)

½ cup coconut milk

1 2/3 cup water

1 tbsp chicken bouillon (note: I use a liquid chicken bouillon substitute. See photo for details)

½ tsp sugar

1 tbsp cooking oil

 

Directions:

1. Peel and cube pumpkin. Note: this can be tricky, I’d suggest using a sharp knife. 
2. Fry chicken, then set aside. 
3. Fry curry paste and chicken bouillon together in cooking oil. 
4. Add coconut milk, mix curry paste and stock with the milk until it melts, then add water. 
5. Once the mixture begins to boil add the pumpkin and kaffir lime leaves. If its too dry, add more water. 
6. Let boil 10-15 mins with the lid on until pumpkin is cooked. Taste the mixture—if it seems too dry and too thick, add more water, if its too dry and too light add more coconut milk.
7. Add cooked chicken.
8. Add sugar and more chicken stock. Once it tastes good, add big chili and turn off heat.
9. Pour into a bowl with basil leaves. Mix together and serve.
10. 

Nutrition: Serves 6

Pumpkin Roll Cake with Orange-Ginger Cream Cheese Filling

So last night I made a pretty comprehensive meal for company, which I’ll detail further in a future post. This is what we had for dessert, however, and it was absolutely delicious! I was surprised that it actually wasn’t too difficult to make, and the outcome was fabulous! I love to have very spiced, flavorful cake, but the spices can be added or subtracted according to personal preference. I used THIS recipe as a basic guideline, but added and subtracted things according to my own preferences. Note: its not the healthiest cake ever, but it is one of the tastiest I’ve ever tried!

Ingredients:

3 Eggs

1 c. white sugar

3/4 c. – 1 c pumpkin, canned

3/4 c. all purpose flour

lemon juice– 1/2 lemon

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/2-1 tsp nutmeg

1/2-1 tsp ground ginger

1/4-1/2 tsp ground clove.

1/2 tsp salt

Filling:

6 oz cream cheese, softened

4 tbsp butter, softened

1 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Orange Zest (to taste, ~1 tsp)

Minced Ginger (to taste, about the same as orange zest)

Directions: 

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

2) Grease a 15x10x1 in baking pan, then line with parchment paper. I greased and floured/poweder sugared the parchment paper as well.

3) Beat the eggs for five minutes. I do this by hand, but on a kitchen mixer the setting would be on high.

4) Beat in sugar slowly, then add the pumpkin and lemon juice. I used juice from a lemon I was using for zest for another recipe, but the conventional bottle variety works well too.

5) In a separate bowl, combine flour, dry spices, baking powder and salt.

6) Fold the dry mixture into the pumpkin mixture.

7) Spread into a flat cake pan. Note: make sure that you spread the batter to the corners; it will not spread on its own.

8) Bake for 15 minutes. Immediately turn out onto a linen towel that is dusted with powdered sugar, or in this case an inexpensive pillow case.

9) Peel off the paper and roll up into the towel, then set aside until completely cooled.

10) While the cake is cooling, begin to prepare the cream mixture. Mix the softened cream cheese, butter powdered sugar, vanilla, and then some of the zest. Mix completely and then taste and continue to add zest until you are satisfied with the taste.

11) When the cake has cooled, unroll and spread the cream evenly. Re-roll immediately, dust with powdered sugar, and then refrigerate until serving. So delicious!

Nutrition: 12 slices