I don’t like to get political with my food posts, but all this talk about immigration we’ve been having these days has made me curious about the cuisines of some of the far flung places in the news! There are some that are great winter dishes among them.
My mom loves Afghani food and wanted me to try this stew. This Afghani stew has a tomato base with cinnamon and garlic, with green lentils and roasted kabocha squash (otherwise known as Japanese pumpkin).
Often ground beef is used in the sauce but we subbed lentils here. Enjoy!
Afghan Pumpkin and Lentil Stew
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Rachel Carr
Cuisine: Vegan
Serves: 1.5 qt
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 4 medium tomatoes, blanched and peeled
- 2 cloves garlic
- olive oil for roasting
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon sea salt+more to taste
- 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
- ¼ cup red cooking wine (stock is ok)
- water as needed
- 1 cup cooked brown lentils
For the stew
- 1 kabocha squash
- ¼ cup parsley, chopped
Instructions
For the sauce
- Blanche tomatoes in boiling water and plunge into ice water. Remove skins and toss whole peeled tomatoes in olive oil and salt.
- Roast 2 hours at 250 F on a sheet pan, uncovered.
- Saute onions and 4 cloves garlic.
- Add cinnamon, pepper, ginger, salt and tomato paste.
- Saute 2 more minutes.
- Deglaze with cooking wine.
- Add the roasted tomatoes and cook for 2 more minutes.
- Place the ingredients into a food processor and pulse a few times to create a thick, chunky sauce.
- Mix with the lentils and heat before serving.
- Adjust seasonings to taste.
For the stew
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Roast the winter squash whole for 45 min or until tender. Remove from the oven and cut in half. Remove the seeds and cut the flesh away from the skin.
- Mix roasted squash with the tomato and lentil sauce.
- Serve over cooked quinoa. Garnish with chopped parsley and mint, and vegan yogurt (I made cashew yogurt here).
[…] If you like this, you might want to try this pumpkin and lentil stew! […]