Roasted Pumpkin With Meat Sauce And Yogurt

Roasted Pumpkin With Meat Sauce And Yogurt
4.5 from 2 ratings
If you're wondering how to incorporate pumpkin into your cooking rotation, but you're tired of pumpkin pie and pumpkin seeds, this is the recipe for you. Slices of pumpkin are topped with a savory meat and yogurt sauce. This recipe by Leah Eskin originally appeared in The Chicago Tribune.
Prep Time
30
minutes
Cook Time
3.23
hours
Servings
8
servings
Total time: 3.73 hours
Ingredients
  • 2 pie pumpkins, each 3 pounds
  • 6 tablespoon mild oil, such as canola
  • 3 cup sugar
  • yogurt sauce (recipe follows)
  • meat sauce (recipe follows)
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup full-fat plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1/2 pounds ground meat
  • 1 tomato
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
Directions
  1. Lop the stem off one pumpkin.
  2. Using a heavy knife and caution, slice the pumpkin in half from top (where the stem was) to bottom.
  3. Turn each half flat-side down.
  4. Slice each half into 4 wedges.
  5. Scrape out seeds and strings.
  6. Repeat, yielding 16 wedges.
  7. Use a vegetable peeler to pare away all the dark orange skin, leaving pale pumpkin boats.
  8. Arrange boats, hollow-side up, in a single layer in a baking pan (or two).
  9. Rub on oil.
  10. Sprinkle on sugar.
  11. Cover pan(s) tightly with foil.
  12. Slide into a 300-degree oven and roast, basting once, until pumpkin is very tender, dark orange and appears translucent, about 3 hours and 15 minutes.
  13. For each serving, spoon 2 tablespoon yogurt sauce onto a plate.
  14. With a slotted spoon, settle on two slices of roast pumpkin.
  15. Top with 1/2 cup meat sauce. Enjoy.
  16. De-germ (remove green shoot) from 1 clove garlic.
  17. Mash together with 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Whisk into 1 cup full-fat plain yogurt. Chill.
  18. In a large saucepan, heat 1/4 cup canola oil over medium heat.
  19. Slide in 1 chopped onion.
  20. Cook, stirring, until golden brown, about 6 minutes.
  21. Drop in 1 1/2 pounds ground round.
  22. Cook, breaking up meat, until no longer pink, about 4 minutes.
  23. Stir in 1 chopped tomato, 2 finely chopped cloves garlic, 1 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander; 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper and 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric.
  24. Cook 5 minutes.
  25. Stir in 2 tablespoon tomato paste and 1 1/3 cups water.
  26. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.