Pumpkins aren’t just for Halloween! I love the bulbous orange veggie for warming recipes, including this chunky stew, which I normally pair with wholegrain rice.
Now that the ‘day of the dead’ has come and gone, you might be wondering what to do with your leftover pumpkins – this is just the thing for you! As a simple one-dish recipe, you can leave it on the stove to simmer until it’s just the way you like it, and if you want to go the extra mile, you can even blend it up into a soup to have with seedy brown bread – yum!
Like a lot of the recipes I write about, this one is ‘accidentally vegan’ – I only just realised after eating it today! It makes the most of British seasonal veggies, and has a nice warming kick from the black pepper, perfect for heating up after a fresh walk on a Sunday morning.
Warming Pumpkin Stew
Serves 4
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion
1 medium pumpkin
4 tbsp lentils
1 vegetable stock cube
1 tbsp black pepper
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Handful of pumpkin seeds, shelled
- In a large saucepan, pour in two tablespoons of olive oil and apply medium heat
- On a large chopping board, finely slice your onion, and add to the pan, covering with a lid and cooking until translucent
- While your onion cooks, prepare your pumpkin – I slice it into melon-like pieces before removing the skin and dicing the flesh
- When the onion is translucent, start adding your pumpkin into the pan, returning the lid each time
- Once all of the pumpkin is in the pan, dissolve your stock cube with half a cup of boiling water and pour into the mix
- Now add the lentils and black pepper, mixing thoroughly before leaving on a low heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes with the lid on
- If serving with rice, cook this now – wholegrain usually takes 15-20 minutes so you can time your pumpkin stew with that
- Once the time is up, your pumpkin should be lovely and soft – you can either mash it, or break the pieces down with a wooden spoon to a chunkiness of your preference, serving as you wish!
