This vegan pumpkin stew with kale - baby kale - is a nice surprise. Not just for the taste buds, also for the eye! With this fun Asian twist, we dare say: you haven't eaten a stew like this very often before. Do something different with that kale! David shows you how!
Pumpkin stew with an Asian twist?
A stew where we substitute potatoes for rice. No gravy but soy sauce. No Dutch seasoning, but a homemade paste with chilli, ginger, cloves and kemiri nuts, among others... Perhaps stamppot is not quite the right name for this dish, but the kale and smashed pumpkin do have a hint of stamppot. So anyway, this meal cannot really be pigeonholed. But what I do know: the result is so festive and flavourful that this is also a perfect dish for when you have dinner guests over.
Pumpkin stew with kale
Did you already know that pumpkin and kale go well together? That is true for almost all seasonal vegetables that grow simultaneously in one region, by the way. Now you also know why tomatoes, aubergine and courgette are such a good combo. Well, so this also applies to ‘our’ seasonal vegetables. You can combine these well together as I did with this vegan pumpkin stew with kale. To be honest: Dutch stew is not my favourite meal, so when I found baby kale in a vegetable box from Boershappen, I had to think hard about what to make with it. At least not a Dutch stew, I knew.
Fortunately, a recipe by Jamie Oliver inspiration. He has already discovered that pumpkin and kale are a good combo. I gave it my own twist by making my own boemboe with it.
Making your own paste
A boemboe is a spice paste from Indonesian cuisine, often made from spices such as garlic, onion, chilli peppers and various herbs. Making your own paste is something I enjoy doing and it gives an authentic flavour to your dishes and you have control over the ingredients. If you don't have time to make the paste yourself for this stew, you can also buy ready-made paste.
A vegan pumpkin stew with baby kale. The addition of spices like chilli, ginger, cloves, kemiri nuts and, of course, the rice and soy sauce make it not a typical stew, but rather an Asian dish.
Vegan pumpkin stew with kale ‘Asian style’
Kitchenware
- hand blender/blender
- cutting board
- vegetable knife
- frying pan
- (saucepan)
- wok
Ingredients
- 1 bag baby kale (baby variant cauliflower, 200 gr) Regular cauliflower can also be used
- 1 bottle pumpkin in cubes of 2 ~ 3 cm or 2-3 diced sweet potatoes (or mix)
- 10 kemirin nuts
- 1 chilli
- 1 thumb ginger
- 2 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 onion chopped
- 4 toes garlic
- 200 gr rice
- flat parsley optional
- soy sauce optional
Instructions
Making curry
- Mash the garlic, cloves, chilli, ginger and kemirin nuts with a hand blender/blender to form a paste.
- Heat some oil in a frying pan on medium/high heat and fry the onions until golden brown.
- Add the garlic/spice paste to the pan and fry for 1 minute.
- Add the bottle squash and fry for another minute on high heat.
- Add some water and lower the heat.
- Let the bottle squash (and/or sweet potato) simmer gently until it softens (10 ~ 20 minutes).
Cooking rice
- Meanwhile, cook the rice according to the instructions on the packet. Let the rice cool down by pouring cold water over it.
Wokken
- Take a wok and heat it on high heat with (wok) oil.
- Wok the rice and baby kale until the rice starts to caramelise and the kale leaves have shrunk.
- Now add the bottle pumpkin curry to the rice and kale and wok for a few more minutes.
- Scoop a portion of the vegan pumpkin stew onto a plate and garnish with parsley and soy sauce: enjoy!
Notes
More recipes from thegreenlist.nl
- Also see: vegan pea soup, also a classic with a twist.
- Want to learn more about seasonal vegetables? Each month has been given its own article.
- Also delicious with pumpkin: This creamy pumpkin curry quiche.
Photo credits: thegreenlist.nl.
