Pumpkin Raita

Before I began Project Indian Cooking, I hadn't eaten a lot of pumpkin. It was a vegetable primarily consumed as a small component of udipi-hotel-bought sambhar. Thanks to this blog, I have developed a taste for this fantastic vegetable. Pumpkin raita is a result of my never-ending thirst for making different recipes from the same basic ingredients. For the first time since I started this blog, pumpkin raita is the only recipe which garnered a sincere compliment from my mother-in-law.

The ingredients are simple and available in every household. Yet you never thought of pumpkin in a raita form. Atleast, I never did. It was a pleasant, and quite a delicious surprise for all of us.

Ingredients

• 250 g pumpkin
• 1 cup curd
• 3 tsp red chilli powder
• 3 tsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 green chillies chopped
• 1 tsp methi dana
• 2 tsp urad dal
• 1/4th tsp asafoetida (hing)
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt to taste

Wash and peel the pumpkin. Chop into large pieces. Allow the threads to remain, discard only the seeds. Boil the pumpkin pieces in a cup of water till they become soft.

Mash the tender pumpkin pieces with a fork. Do not make them very pulpy, allow them to remain a little chunky. Add yoghurt, salt, sugar and red chilli powder to the pumpkin. Mix them all up well.

Make the tempering. Heat oil in a wok, and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, methi dana, urad dal, green chillies and hing. Turn off the heat, and add the turmeric powder.

Pour the tempering into the pumpkin curd mixture and mix well. Place a cover on top of the bowl and keep it for 30 minutes.

Serve cold with chapati or parathas.

Happy Cooking!