Caribbean chicken and pumpkin curry

We are really getting into Autumn cooking in our house. Autumn officially started this week so I decided to make an Autumn dish to welcome the new season. I intend to cook something from the season ahead at the start of each season.I believe in eating seasonal food and not expecting food to be flown in from all across the world all year round. I love the foods we grow in Britain and think they should be celebrated. I buy my vegetables from a local farm shop and try to grow some myself.


Today I made my Autumn dish, a caribbean chicken and pumpkin curry. The recipe comes from my slow cooker book. I am a big fan of my slow cooker. It is used during the week when we are at work so we have piping hot ready to eat meals when we arrive home but today I thought it would be nice to put the effort in this morning and then as the recipe serves 4 and there are just 2 of us we can have the rest on Sunday and I don't have to prepare anything else. It frees up time tomorrow.

Serves 4 and recipe is for a slow cooker. I am sure you could adapt it to normal oven casserole cooking.

60ml sunflower oil
700g pumpkin cut into bite sized chunks
1 bunch spring onions
1 garlic clove crushed
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp curry powder
1tsp crushed dried chillies
90ml water
4 skinless chicken breasts ( I use thighs)
400g can coconut milk
Salt and pepper
1 green pepper cut into chunks ( red or yellow)

Optional
30ml toasted sesame seeds

To serve
Flat breads (but I use rice)

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the pumpkin and fry, stirring, for about 5 minutes until golden all over and almost tender. Remove with a draining spoon and drain onto kitchen paper. Set aside.

Reserve a few chopped green ends of spring onions for garnish. Add the remainder to the pan and stir fry for 1 minute. Add the garlic, spices and water to the pan and stir for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and toss in the spice mixture, then tip into the slow cooker.

Pour the coconut milk into the pan and heat, stirring, until bubbling. Add to the chicken, season with salt and pepper and mix well. Add the pumpkin and pepper, cover and cook on high for 2 hours or on low for 4 hours until the chicken and pumpkin are really tender.

Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and the reserved chopped green spring onions. Serve with flat breads as suggested in the recipe, rice, noodles or potatoes.

I often just add all the ingredients to the slow cooker, stir and switch it on. It comes out perfectly. These were my steps today:

Spring onions, pepper, garlic, water, coconut milk added

Spices added

The small pumpkin I used. It was the perfect size without having any leftovers

The chopped pumpkin added

The end result

I hope this inspires you to try cooking with pumpkin.