Serves: 2 adults (around 2 pumpkins per person if serving as a main dish)
Preparation time: 20 minutes, cooking time: 40 minutes.
Vegan stuffed pumpkins
Ingredients
4-5 small winter squash/thin-skinned pumpkins
200 g black beans (or 1 drained tin)
200 g bulgur wheat
2 small red onions
1 clove garlic
200 g spinach
handful of black kalamata olives
handful coriander or parsley
2 large T tahini
dash soya sauce
1 t ground coriander
1 t ground cumin
1 large slice sourdough, toasted and ground into breadcrumbs
1 red chilli
2 T cider vinegar
1 ripe avocado
Method
Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
Pour boiling water over the bulgur wheat, cover and leave for around 10 minutes until cooked. Then drain.
Chop ends of pumpkins, peel them, core them with a spoon to form pumpkin bowls. Discard seeds, peel, ends. Place pumpkin bowls onto an oven tray lined with baking paper and drizzle over olive oil and a pinch of salt. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Dissolve a generous pinch of sea salt in 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar. Slice red chili and place in the vinegar to quick pickle until ready to serve pumpkins.
Meanwhile, dice onion and cook in a frying pan on a low heat until soft and slightly browning at the edges. Add chopped garlic and cook for 1 minute further. Then add spinach and cook until it has reduced.
Make the stuffing for the pumpkins by mixing together the stuffing ingredients: black beans, bulgur wheat, the onions, garlic, spinach mix from the frying pan, chopped olives (removing all stones), finely chopped coriander or parsley, tahini, a dash of soya sauce, 1 t ground coriander, 1 t ground cumin, and half of the breadcrumbs.
Remove the pumpkins from oven, stuff each pumpkin, packing the stuffing down firmly. Then top with the remaining breadcrumbs and additional olive oil. Return the pumpkins to the oven for a further 20 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are golden brown.
Serve each pumpkin with a slice of avocado and sprinkled with quick pickled chili peppers. Serve them as part of a mezze spread, with hummus and labneh on the side, or serve them next to a big green salad dressed in citrus.
Quick labneh
Take around 250 ml of thick greek yoghurt (the natural sort that is high in fat but has no setting agents or sugar). Mix it with around half a teaspoon of seasalt. Then wrap it in a cheesecloth or linen tea-towel over a colander. Place a weight (2-3 cans) on top of the tea-towel. Leave it for at least an hour. Give the cheesecloth a good squeeze before removing the labneh, wringing out as much of the whey as possible. This is critical. Roll the labneh in chopped herbs and serve drizzled with good olive oil. This can be an accompaniment to the pumpkins, or is also delicious as part of a mezze spread.
A note on labneh. I looked at a bunch of recipes and they all say to leave it for a minimum of 12 and ideally for 24 hours. That is obviously ideal if what you are looking for is a firm labneh, the sort you’ve probably seen for sale in expensive glass jars, tiny white balls suspended in gluggy green oil. By contrast, this recipe for quick labneh is not going to make a firm cheese, but you can eat it the same night. A lot of liquid comes out within an hour, especially if you squeeze it well, and you still end up with a thick and creamy result that should hold its shape. It has the consistency of cream cheese and the soft, creamy tartness of yoghurt. Give it a try!
The story behind the recipes
This is not meant to be a political post. This is about food. I am writing about food. But it feels disingenuous not to acknowledge how exhausted I am from following the news in Ukraine, feeling my heart break with every update. As if trying to read everything in the Western media could somehow make it feel less awful. As if I might feel any less frustrated and disillusioned by the apparent impotence of international law, by Putin’s callous and reckless disregard of it, by the fragility of our world. I wonder if this conflict will herald a sea-change in Europe as we wean off fossil fuels, and then wonder if it is wrong to be looking for silver linings amidst such suffering. These are the thoughts whirling around in my head.
Then I am in the kitchen, I am looking at pumpkins. Peel vegetables. Chop onions. A small peace clears as my hands repeat the familiar tasks. There is war. It is horrific and I am grieving. And in my kitchen there is also peace, there are pumpkins, there are onions. Here I am. The horror of Ukraine is also a reminder to be grateful, for old friends who I was able to reconnect with in Germany over the weekend (noting the new information panels in Ukrainian that have been put up at the major train stations, so that refugees can find their way), for family and loved ones, for the incredible freedom of life in The Netherlands.
Last week I signed up for a local veggie box recommended by a new cycling buddy. I told myself whatever was in that box was what I had to cook with. There were leeks and potatoes, onions, and some small golden globes, happy orange lanterns, not much bigger than oranges once peeled. My original idea was to roast the pumpkins and then smash them into a sort of veggie mash topped with labneh that would be called something to do with Smashing Pumpkins. But once I was in the kitchen, everything changed. It’s funny how often that happens. Start with one idea, end up somewhere completely different. I was peeling the pumpkins, scooping their seeds out and there they sat, like glowing orange bowls, glorious terracotta lanterns lit as if from the inside. I could not bring myself to chop them up, I wanted peace. So they got stuffed instead.
This week’s recipe is as much a concept as it is a recipe. Find beautiful pumpkins, small, thin-skinned pumpkins that are easy to peel. I used a type of small winter squash that is sometimes called a sugar pumpkin (and is not to be confused with red kuri squash, which can also be small but has a hard skin). Peel them, chop their stalks off, scoop out their innards, bake them, stuff them with something delicious, pop them back in the oven and serve piping hot. What could be easier?
The something delicious could be anything. We had eaten tabbouleh the day before, so I had leftover bulghur in the fridge, as well as plenty of fresh herbs. Those went in along with a can of black beans. But the filling could just as well have been couscous, wild rice, lentils, or a second can of black beans. Add flavours (eg tomato paste, cooked onions, garlic), add greens (eg, parsley, coriander, spinach), and add something creamy (cheese if you like, I used tahini to keep it vegan, walnuts or cashews or tofu would also be great) and spices. This isn’t about creating a long list of ingredients. It is about using what you have and improvising with different flavours.
Basically, this is an invitation to experiment with stuffing vegetables. It doesn’t have to be pumpkins, kumara (sweet potatoes) or big jacket potatoes could work just as well. Play with different flavours - Italian (olives) or more Mexican (limes, guacamole), or Middle Eastern (za’atar would also go beautifully). You don’t have to be true to any one cuisine, you can mix and match. Let me know how you get on.
However you stuff your vegetables, please do try out the breadcrumbs (known as pangrattato in Italian), especially if you are not using cheese. Breadcrumbs make a beautiful crunchy crust for the pumpkins. They go golden brown in the oven especially when topped with a little olive oil. They are very easy to make with a blender. I partially toast a large piece of sourdough bread and then let it cool slightly before blending it to the consistency I want. But you can also easily chop them up with a knife.
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Finally, a big shout out to everyone who reached out last week to empathise with my rösti travails. Nice to know that I am not alone in being confounded by this apparently simple dish! Thanks as always for reading. You rock! Any requests for vegetables or recipes, or ideas for themes, please do reach out. I’m always looking for new ideas.
Peace and love. Those radical ideas.
Amelia.