Afghan Inspired Roasted Pumpkin Amongst Spiced Beef Together With Mint-Kefir Sauces

Ingredients:

for the pumpkin:
1 3-4 lb saccharide pumpkin (aka pie pumpkin)
olive oil

for the sauce:
2-3 tablespoons minced fresh mint
iii cloves garlic, minced
1 loving cup plain Lifeway whole milk kefir
salt

for the meat sauce:
1 onion, diced
1 teaspoon solid soil coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 tablespoon blood-red pepper flakes
1 1/3 lb lean solid soil beef
8 oz canned tomato sauce (not puree, non paste)
2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste (or brand your ain amongst fresh ginger in addition to garlic)
8 oz water
salt
freshly solid soil dark pepper



Direction:

Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sail amongst parchment. Set aside.

Cut the pumpkin inwards one-half vertically. Remove seeds in addition to unloosen pulp (save the seeds for roasting!).  Lightly petroleum the pumpkin within in addition to out in addition to house it cut-side downwards on the sheet.

Bake for twoscore minutes or until a knife easily pieces the flesh. In a modest bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients. Cover in addition to refrigerate until laid upward to serve.


Meanwhile, saute the onion until translucent. Add the spices in addition to saute for 1 minute. Add the solid soil beef in addition to brown, breaking upward whatever large pieces. Add the tomato plant sauce, garlic ginger glue in addition to H2O in addition to simmer until the liquid reduces past times half.

To serve: halve each pumpkin halve in addition to fill upward amongst meat. Drizzle amongst sauce.

Serves 4.

My thoughts:

If you lot follow me on Instagram, you've in all probability seen me post the backstory to this pumpkin. Yes, my pumpkin has a backstory. We've never had luck growing vegetables inwards our yard, despite receive got first-class luck amongst diverse fruit trees in addition to bushes, thence nosotros gave upward planting anything. This year, nature had other plans because ane morn I realized that nosotros had a mysterious squelch plant growing close my dorsum door. It grew bigger in addition to bigger in addition to finally, it fruited in addition to it was clear it was a pumpkin! Not only that but it was clearly a saccharide pumpkin made for eating. What should I make?

Long-time readers also know I loathe pumpkin pie thence that was out. So what else could I do? I got a few expert suggestions on Twitter in addition to decided to accept ane from a fellow Baltimore blogger and brand kaddo, an Afghan pumpkin dish. I'd had a sweetness pumpkin appetizer at Baltimore stalwart The Helmand that had sugared pumpkin in addition to a creamy yogurt sauce. I intend it's pretty much their signature dish, every fourth dimension the eatery comes upward inwards conversation somone mentions it. Anyway, I started to google recipes in addition to realized that at that spot is about other version out at that spot that adds a meat sauce to the mix. This sounded perfect because my pumpkins are a piddling bigger than app size in addition to the add-on of meat would larn inwards into a to a greater extent than filling meal. I dug a piddling deeper into the recipe in addition to really couldn't detect whatever existent connectedness to an Afghan dish really served inwards Afghanistan. All of the recipes seemed to come upward dorsum to a eatery named Helmand inwards San Francisco, or a eatery inwards Cambridge, MA also named Helmand (note to Afghan restaurants, perhaps a novel yell is inwards order). Even blogs specializing inwards Afghan recipes admitted they didn't swallow the dish piece inwards Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan but at ane of these restaurants. So, I'm non solely convinced kaddo bourani is about authentic Afghan dish. It does purpose a lot of the same flavors every bit other meat-based Afghan dishes in addition to at that spot are recipes for sweetened pumpkin thence my estimate is that about chef combined the two, added yogurt (a familiar add-on inwards Afghan cuisine) in addition to created a novel dish. If you lot know more, please electronic mail me! I'm really interested.

So I checked out the menus of the diverse Helmand restaurants in addition to came upward amongst this recipe. It's almost similar making sloppy joes, to last honest, thence it is quite quick. The pumpkin takes a piece but honestly, that requires no hands-on fourth dimension thence you lot really could brand this on a weeknight in addition to really print someone.

After smashing the meat sauce, I moved on the yogurt sauce. Since I wanted to brand this quick, I wanted to brand the simplest sauce possible. I honey doogh, a salty yogurt drinkable that is pop inwards Afganistan. It's oft flavored amongst mint which reminded me of the sauce you lot pour over the meat in addition to pumpkin in addition to I wondered if I could but purpose that but is a piddling tricky to detect inwards local stores.

I had heard nigh the Lifeway Kefir blogger contest. Kefir reminds me a lot of doogh, they are both lightly bubbly in addition to of course of written report yogurt-based but Lifeway Kefir is sold at Safeway, Giant, in addition to Shoprite locally in addition to I wouldn't receive got to rail downwards doogh or brand my own. Doogh isn't traditionally used every bit a sauce anyway, unremarkably you lot sparse out yogurt thence using kefir which is already the consistency of sparse yogurt was perfect. Less work, great yogurt flavor, in addition to ton of probiotics? Sign me up.

The whole dish really came together. H5N1 lot of recipes I industrial plant life online had you lot heavily sugaring the pumpkin in addition to baking it for a really long fourth dimension but I didn't detect that either was needed. Sugar pumpkins are quite sweetness naturally (it's inwards the name!) in addition to genuinely don't take away a long roasting fourth dimension or saccharide for them to supply the necessary sweetness contrast inwards the dish. The meat sauce is deeply flavored in addition to is complemented past times the rich, minty sauce. The presentation is quite impressive too! I served this for an everyday repast but it would last perfect for a dinner party. You tin forcefulness out easily double the recipe.

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