You guys, hello hello! I’m so very excited to be bringing to you a new series on the blog – Take One Make Two, where every week my amma, Shanthi Ramachandran and I will choose an ingredient and share a recipe each using the same. Just all the possibilities and ways in which we can come up with something new or revisit old favorites has us giddy with excitement.
So, starting this week, every Thursday, expect us to share two ways to use an ingredient – a fruit, vegetable, spice or anything we think we can cook with and we’ll be sharing a recipe each which will be our take on it. One may be a traditional Indian recipe while the other is something more fancy-schmancy or maybe one of us will just choose to make a traditional recipe fancy. Maybe one of us will share a dessert recipe while the other one shares something savory. You’ll just have to wait and see because that’s what we are going to do too. Hah.
And, if, you like me, have resorted to online shopping for fresh produce during this time, this is a great way to use up things that you order in excess without realizing it. Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s done it (one too many times!).
Without further ado, let me introduce you to this week’s ingredient the humble but absolutely delicious and a fam favorite – Pumpkin.
We all LOVE the pumpkin varuthuaracha kozhambu that my amma makes so that’s exactly what she is going to be sharing.
For the non-Tamils, varuthu arachu translates to roasting (varuthu) and grinding (arachu) and kozhambu is a thick tamarind based gravy – kinda like a thicker sibling to sambar. It’s tangy, spicy and the slight sweetness from the pumpkin beautifully balances it all.
This goes really well with hot steamed rice with some ghee and appalam we usually eat the leftovers with all sorts of tiffin items – dosai, idli, pongal etc.
Now, on to my take on using pumpkin. I almost shared the recipe of this khatta-meeta kaddu I make but decided to share something which is a favorite of the two kiddos in this house. I make a roasted pumpkin sauce for pasta that the kids devour. This time, I decided to give it a twist and made a thicker, chunkier version of it to use as a filling for some home-made ravioli.
Minimal ingredients, egg-free and something that can easily be made dairy-free too.
I let the elder one help me out with this while the younger one napped. So this is a perfect recipe for a leisurely weekend brunch that all of the family can prep together if that is something you’d all enjoy.
If you need help with shaping the ravioli, please check this video. I used a multi-grain atta blend that I had but any regular atta or maida should work too.
You can also serve this with marinara or Alfredo sauce. Or try my carrot/bell pepper sauce or even pesto – recipes here.
We hope you try and enjoy these recipes as much as we do. What are your favorite ways of using pumpkin? More importantly, what do you think about this new series? Let us know.
And, if you try any of these recipes, do tag it under #takeonemaketwo on Instagram so that we can see and share them.
And So We Adult 