Melissa Thompson's Peanut Squash Stew
Ingredients
Method
- Peel, de-seed and chop your butternut squash or pumpkin carefully and dice it into bitesize chunks.
- In a microwave-proof bowl (ideally glass or robust plastic), add your squash cubes and 2 tablespoons of mild curry paste. Give the squash a mix so the curry paste is roughly covering all the pieces.
- Cook the squash in the microwave for a few minutes at a time and test it with a fork after each round. Cook until tender but not completely soft as it will finish cooking in the stew.
- While the squash softens in the microwave: In a deep, wide frying pan, or a Dutch pot, warm the tbsp oil and add the minced garlic and ginger paste and simmer until aromatic. Be careful not to burn the garlic by keeping the heat on low-medium.
- Add the crispy fried onion. These are being used in place of fresh onion which I couldn’t find – they make a really great fast-track solution as they’re already fried, sweet and full of flavour!
- Simmer these ingredients together before adding the diced aubergine.
- Add another 2 tbsp curry paste to the pan and mix gently so all the aubergine is well-coated with the paste.
- Chop the potatoes and yellow bell pepper and add to the vegetables in the pan. Continue to fry on a low-medium heat.
- Add 1 finely chopped red chilli to the vegetables (keep the seeds in for heat, or remove for more gentle warmth)
- Add the microwaved squash to the pan with the rest of the veg and stir gently.
- Add approximately 250 ml of boiling water to the sautéing vegetables and allow it to simmer.
- With the remaining 500 ml boiling water create a slurry with the peanut butter. Do this by gently whisking 4-5 tablespoons of peanut butter into the boiling water until it becomes creamy and pourable. This will stop the peanut butter from forming lumps in the stew!
- Pour the slurry into the stew mixture in the pan and use extra boiling water to get the last dregs of the slurry from your jug. This will be the liquid you use to add to the stew intermittently.
- Wash and chop green beans in half and add them to the nearly cooked stew. Continue to stir and add water where needed. Once the stew is thickened, and aromatic and all the vegetable is cooked until tender, serve into bowls and enjoy with rice.
- Garnish with fresh herbs of your choice. We’ve used chopped chives in this recipe!
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Overall Rating:
4.00
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