Roasted Pumpkin with Red Curry Vegetables and Rice

After seeing a delicious curry dish beautifully presented in a pumpkin in an issue from Food & Wine last fall, I decided to give it a try, changing a few things here and there to my liking.

Pumpkins can feel cumbersome to work with. Their outsides are hard and their insides can be stringy and full of seeds. But it helps to find a breed of pumpkin that is easy to cook with. I happened to find some “butterkins,” a cross between a butternut squash and a pumpkin, at my local farmer’s market and I was really happy with the result. It had the iconic shape of a pumpkin, but its skin and meat were tender like that of a butternut squash.

This recipe is a hearty veggie-forward meal (can be made vegan if you take out the fish sauce). The red curry paste not only gives flavor to the rice and vegetables, but it permeates the skin of the pumpkin which, as it roasts also lends its earthy squash flavor to the entire dish. As you scoop the rice and vegetables from the pumpkin, the tender meat of the pumpkin joins the mixture, adding texture and umami flavor to the meal. I recommend pairing it with a bubbly white wine.

Ingredients
- 2 small cooking pumpkins
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 cup of chopped onions
- 1 cup of chopped carrots
- 1 cup of chopped mushrooms
- 1 cup of uncooked rice
- 1 can of coconut milk
- 1/4 cup of water
- 3-4 ounces of red curry paste
- 1 teaspoon of fish sauce
- Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
- Preheat stove to 350 °F
- Chop mushrooms, carrots and onions.
- Sauté in a pot the carrots and onions in olive oil.
- Meanwhile, cut tops of pumpkins off (set aside) and core out the center, removing seeds and pulp.
- Once onions are a little translucent, add coconut milk.
- Add 3 - 4 ounces of red curry paste to the pot.
- Add 1 cup of rice.
- Add 1/4 cup of water and allow the curry to simmer, cooking the veggies and the rice.
- Add a teaspoon of fish sauce.
- Once rice is mostly cooked, add mushrooms and stir into the curry. Allow it to simmer until rice is cooked.
- Stuff the pumpkins with the curry, rice and vegetables.
- Place the tops back on the pumpkins, covering the stuffing.
- Put pumpkins in the oven at 350 for 30-40 minutes, until the pumpkins become soft.