Chickpea Pumpkin Curry

I visit lots of blogs that feature drool worthy food (see sidebar for examples). But very rarely am I instantly inspired to make whatever it is I am reading. The one exception to this is Vicci’s The Days Are Just Packed. She has a knack for picking vegetarian or otherwise very healthy dishes that are not a headache to prepare and that I am confident my family will enjoy (previous example). Well I struck gold with her again this past week when I checked out her Chicken Pumpkin Curry.

YUM.

This dish is so good that Alex spent 5 minutes being sent to her room after I caught her trying to pull her stool over to the oven to spoon out some of the simmering curry–and that has NEVER happened before (and was definitely horrifying–but still, she and Sammy did spend the entire 30 minutes before dinner begging for tastes of “the curry”). Terrifying toddler moments aside, this was a big hit with the entire family.

Here are my changes: as Vicci recommended I used chickpeas (some frozen cooked ones I had) instead of chicken, I used chicken stock, not veggie, I used 1/4 cup cashew butter since I had no cashews to chop, I used butternut squash, I used fresh ginger not dried, and I used 2 1/2 large red onions and cooked them a lot longer than she did (serious caramelization). I also could not find my cloves so I tossed in some cinnamon instead. I also simmered it for a while, uncovered, toward the end because I prefer a thicker curry. I served it with basmati rice, and everyone’s plates were cleared.

This last picture is of Alex’s bowl, which she requested I take. You might notice the sauce is under the rice–a little trick I have learned to keep them from being mad about sauce getting on their rice. And yes it actually works.

I am submitting this Bookmarked Recipes this week. Go check out Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments to see what everyone else is cooking from the web.