Pumpkin Purée Panang Curry

This time of year (fall!) I want hot, spicy bowls of things for dinner practically every night. I also want pumpkin all the time, because as we all know, I’m Basic with a capital B. Once it starts getting dark early, I abandon all hope and energy and secretly wish I could just order in Thai food every night of the week, but obviously I’m trying not to be a complete garbage person so I still cook.

The perfect storm of me wanting Thai curry plus me wanting pumpkin plus me needing to get through a huge Imperfect Produce box that I had forgotten to customize and therefore had tons of zucchini and bok choy to use led me to this homemade version of one of my favorite Thai dishes: pumpkin curry! I’m not claiming that this is the most authentic or traditional method in the world, but I can tell you that it came together in about a half hour and it was really, really good. This recipe is also super customizable - you could sub in red curry paste (or even yellow or green, although I think panang/red is best when combined with pumpkin) and you can use any of your favorite vegetables or proteins, too. The sky’s the limit… no UberEats required!

Homemade Pumpkin Panang Curry

Makes 4-6 servings

What you will need for the curry sauce:
1 14oz can lite coconut milk
1/2 14oz can full-fat coconut milk
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 14oz can pumpkin puree
1 sweet potato, peeled & chopped
2 tablespoons Panang curry paste (I prefer Mae Ploy but use your favorite or whatever you have on hand)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
Optional: red chili flakes to taste

Plus your favorite vegetables. I used:
1 cup chopped broccoli
1 cup chopped cauliflower
1/2 onion, sliced
2 zucchini, coined
1 head bok choy, trimmed and sliced
2 carrots, coined

Optional protein:
3/4 pound chicken breast or thighs, thinly sliced

The key to this curry is, instead of using lots of full-fat coconut milk for achieving a thick, creamy texture, you use pumpkin itself! I actually used pumpkin and sweet potato because I had some from this week’s produce box that I needed to do something with.

So: combine the full-fat coconut milk, chicken broth, and sweet potato in a large saucepan and bring to a boil until the sweet potato is tender, then add the pumpkin puree and blend with an immersion blender. (Add a bit more broth if needed to get a thick but still blendable consistency.) Set this aside. This will be your extra texture you add later! (Don’t have sweet potato? Use an additional 1/2 can of pumpkin.)

Next, heat (melt) the coconut oil over medium-high heat in a stock pot or dutch oven. Add the curry paste and pan fry for a minute or so, then add the onions for another couple minutes. If you’re including chicken, add it in now and brown with the onions until it’s allllmost cooked through. Shouldn’t take more than 5-10ish minutes if you thinly sliced it.

Throw in the rest of the veg, add the can of lite coconut milk, and simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the coconut milk is slightly reduced and the vegetables are tender but not overcooked or mushy. Stir in the coconut-pumpkin puree you set aside and watch the curry get thick and creamy before your eyes! Give it a taste; you may want more curry paste (I often do) and/or some extra heat from red chili flakes. If so, stir those in (make sure the curry paste completely “melts” into the mixture and is evenly dispersed so you don’t get a giant surprise glob of curry paste in your bowl later).

Serve over rice or quinoa, or just enjoy on its own!

(Your pot will get a little messy but that’s part of the glory…)