Roasted Pumpkin with Meat Sauce and Yogurt
Prep Time:
30 minutes
Cook Time:
3 hours, 15 minutes
Servings:
Ingredients
  • 2 pie pumpkins, each 3 pounds
  • 6 tablespoon mild oil, such as canola
  • 3 cup sugar
  • yogurt sauce (recipe follows)
  • meat sauce (recipe follows)
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup full-fat plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1/2 pounds ground meat
  • 1 tomato
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
Directions
  1. Lop the stem off one pumpkin.
  2. Using a heavy knife and caution, slice the pumpkin in half from top (where the stem was) to bottom.
  3. Turn each half flat-side down.
  4. Slice each half into 4 wedges.
  5. Scrape out seeds and strings.
  6. Repeat, yielding 16 wedges.
  7. Use a vegetable peeler to pare away all the dark orange skin, leaving pale pumpkin boats.
  8. Arrange boats, hollow-side up, in a single layer in a baking pan (or two).
  9. Rub on oil.
  10. Sprinkle on sugar.
  11. Cover pan(s) tightly with foil.
  12. Slide into a 300-degree oven and roast, basting once, until pumpkin is very tender, dark orange and appears translucent, about 3 hours and 15 minutes.
  13. For each serving, spoon 2 tablespoon yogurt sauce onto a plate.
  14. With a slotted spoon, settle on two slices of roast pumpkin.
  15. Top with 1/2 cup meat sauce. Enjoy.
  16. De-germ (remove green shoot) from 1 clove garlic.
  17. Mash together with 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Whisk into 1 cup full-fat plain yogurt. Chill.
  18. In a large saucepan, heat 1/4 cup canola oil over medium heat.
  19. Slide in 1 chopped onion.
  20. Cook, stirring, until golden brown, about 6 minutes.
  21. Drop in 1 1/2 pounds ground round.
  22. Cook, breaking up meat, until no longer pink, about 4 minutes.
  23. Stir in 1 chopped tomato, 2 finely chopped cloves garlic, 1 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander; 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper and 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric.
  24. Cook 5 minutes.
  25. Stir in 2 tablespoon tomato paste and 1 1/3 cups water.
  26. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.