I do love a wonderfully spiced traditional sweet pumpkin pie however this savoury version makes a great main meal! It came about as the result of an error in the kitchen. I had been intending to make a biryani stuffed pumpkin, however dropping the pumpkin as it came out of the oven and smashing it meant it would no longer hold the filling. Yes everyone has accidents in the kitchen! Instead of being defeated by it I turned it into this savoury pumpkin pie.
It is Indian spiced which is beautiful and warming. It tastes great served straight from the oven or left to cool and eaten the next day. In fact I think it tasted better the next day but then again I think cold pizza tastes better than hot pizza, so maybe that is just me!
It does have sweet notes running through it with the sultanas dispersed throughout it. I also left the cardamon pods in it so they were a nice surprise in it too! Rowan loved the filling of this and happily ate it but did not want to eat the pastry. He doesn’t like wheat products at the moment (unless it is cake!) so I’m sure with time he will start to like them.
You can make the pumpkin puree in a couple of ways or just use the tinned version! If you have a whole pumpkin you can roast it at 190C for an hour or boil chunks of pumpkin for about 20 minutes (this will produce a wetter puree).
I used the pumpkin in this recipe from Kilduff Farm as I picked up a couple of culinary pumpkins as well as carving pumpkins.
Savoury Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
- 1 small pumpkin, around 450g
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 inch fresh ginger, finely chopped
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 3 cardamon pods
- Handful of sultanas
- Handful toasted flaked almonds
- 150g red rice
- 15g fresh coriander
- 200g wholewheat plain flour
- 100g butter
- Water
Method
- Prepare your pumpkin, either roast it whole at 190C for an hour or boil chunks of pumpkin for about 20 minutes (this will produce a wetter puree).
- Place the red rice in a pan with the cardamon pods and cook the red rice in boiling water for 30 minutes. Once cooked drain and put to one side.
- Meanwhile, in a frying pan, dry toast the cumin, mustard and coriander seeds for 4 minutes. Remove from the pan and grind in a pestle and mortar.
- In the same pan, sweat the onions down in extra virgin olive oil. After five minutes add the garlic and ginger and continue cooking for a further five minutes. Add the spices and continue cooking for two minutes.
- Add the pumpkin, rice, sultanas, almonds and coriander to the onions and mix well.
- To make the pastry, place the butter and flour into a bowl. Rub them together between your fingers until it reaches bread crumb consistency. Add water until a dough comes together (this amount will vary depending on the temperature of your house and flour which is why I haven’t put in a volume). When the dough comes together turn out onto a floured surface and roll out to 4mm thick. Place the dough into the bottom of a pie dish.
- Place a layer of baking parchment over the pastry and then baking beans (dried rice or beans will work if you don’t have baking beans). Blind bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Remove the parchment and baking beans. Add in the pumpkin mixture, scatter more flaked almonds on the top and return to the oven for another 20-25 minutes.
Adaptations
To make this gluten free use gluten free plain flour in place of the wholewheat flour.
To make this recipe vegan use a hard vegetable fat such as trex in place of the butter.
Enjoy! H xx
Hermione's Pantry 