Butternut squash curry is a spicy dish made with butternut squash and a blend of Indian spices. The squash is diced and added to a curry sauce made with onion, spices, and liquids. Additional ingredients can be added, and the dish is served with rice or noodles.
Butternut squash curry is a dish prepared by cooking and serving butternut squash in a spicy sauce. Each cook prepares their own variation, but each recipe will contain a blend of various spices and the most traditional curries contain turmeric, cumin and coriander. Butternut squash is a winter squash with a sweet, nutty flavor and texture that makes it suitable for use in a curry. Most people eat pumpkin curry with white or brown rice as the rice helps absorb the sauce and its flavors.
Curry originated in India and the term ‘curry’ is believed to derive from the South Indian term kari, which roughly means ‘sauce’. As a result, most curries use spices commonly found in Indian cooking. In addition to the standard turmeric, cumin, and coriander, other common spices include ginger, chili peppers, fenugreek, and cloves. Other countries, such as Japan, Thailand and Ethiopia, also have their own versions of curries that make use of their native spices, but most cooks making a pumpkin curry will likely use Indian flavours.
Ripe squash has thick orange flesh. In many soup or bread recipes, this meat is softened through a slow roasting process and mashed into a puree, but the meat can hold its shape when diced or sliced and cooked for a shorter amount of time. Most curries use butternut squash cubes rather than pumpkin puree. The sweet flavor of a fully ripe butternut squash contrasts with the heat of curry spice, giving the dish a wider depth of flavor than curries made with blender ingredients.
Some cooks start by browning cubes of squash, but many often prep the curry sauce and other ingredients before adding the squash. Onion, which is a common ingredient found in butternut squash curry, is cooked until translucent or caramelized, depending on a cook’s individual preferences. After the onion is done, the cook adds any spices, pastes, and liquids to the pot and heats these ingredients long enough for the flavors to meld together. Pre-packaged curry pastes already contain all the curry spices needed to prepare the dish. Cooks who don’t use a curry paste can add other pastes or thick liquids, such as tomato paste or onion puree, to give the curry a thicker texture.
After the sauce has simmered for several minutes, the butternut squash is added to the curry and allowed to cook for 10 to 20 minutes. The goal is for the squash to become tender without becoming mushy. Cooking the squash too long will cause it to fall apart, but not cooking it long enough will leave it too tough to bite into. The cooking process also helps extract the natural sweetness of the butternut squash, allowing it to soak into the curry broth.
Any additional ingredients, ranging from chickpeas to tomatoes to shrimp, can be added into the pumpkin curry alongside the pumpkin or well after, depending on how long these ingredients need to complete to cook. Once all the ingredients have finished cooking and all the flavorings are blended together, the curry is removed from the heat source and served hot. Many people serve the curry with prepared rice, but others may prefer to eat it with noodles. Both rice and noodles are soaked in some liquid, so both are suitable choices.
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