This rich and creamy pumpkin rice was inspired by Chris De La Rosa of Caribbean Pot - big shout out to Chris for creating this dish and for being my inspiration behind this blog! (this is the first time he is hearing this).
Pumpkin has to be one of my favourite vegetables, it is so versatile as you will see from many other recipes I have created. Your going to see it crop up a few more times on my food journey in the form of soups and pies and maybe fritters. Interestingly enough pumpkin rice wasn’t a dish made in my household from what I can recall, unlike many other forms of ‘cook-up rices’ that I have enjoyed.
Stuffing it into grilled sweet peppers simply intensifies the colour and texture if anything else. I enjoyed this dish on its own, but I think it could go well with any fish or meat dish of your choice.
Pumpkin Rice
2 cups diced pumpkin
2 cloves garlic
1 medium onion - finely chopped
1 scotch bonnet pepper - whole
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups brown rice (long grain)
tablespoon olive oil (veg oil or butter)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
3 – 3 1/2 cups veg stock
To begin with you need to dice and peel the raw pumpkin into squares. Then place in a pot, your onion, garlic and thyme with a little oil and saute until soft. Then add the ginger and black pepper to the pot followed by the diced pumpkin, now stir the pot and cover under a medium heat. While it is cooking you can wash your rice (until the water comes out clear, this may take 2-3 rinses in total).
Once you have washed and drained the rice, you can add it to the pot. GIve it a stir before adding the vegetable stock, then throw the scotch bonnet pepper into the pot. You can taste the liquid at this time if you think it needs any salt.
Now Bring the pot of rice to a boil, once this happens reduce the heat to a simmer and leave the cover of the pot on until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. You will notice that the pumpkin would have begun to disintegrate as well. This should take no more than 10-15 minutes. You may wish to add a knob of butter or a drizzle of olive oil at the end to help bring the flavours together.
While the pot is simmering you can move on to the red sweet peppers. I simply sliced the peppers in two, brushed some oil and placed them face down in a very hot griddle pan, to give that barbecue effect.
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