Pumpkin and Paneer Stew (by alaric)
Equipment
- Knife for chopping veg
- Chopping board
- Large hob safe cassarole dish or pan or a crock pot. With adaption it can easily be cooked in an over or slow cooker as well.
- Oven gloves or mitts or heat proof cloth (Sarah here - ok so I also bought us knew halloween/autumn oven gloves but this one is because Jean's university house mates accidently set fire to the pumpkin ones we've had the last five years or so... so this purchase does not count for halloween decor budget ok!)
Ingredients
- One small pumpkin (sold as a "cooking pumpkin")
- Two courgettes
- 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
- 3 vegetable stock cubes
- 3 teaspoons of smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon of garlic salt (or separate salt and garlic, we just happened to have some nice garlic salt to hand)
- 1 tin of red kidney beans
- 1 tin of chickpeas
(Sarah here - whilst Al did all the cooking I made sure we stayed hydrated with ths lovely Spice Pumpkin Pie Sticky Chai from Bird and Blend made in the pumpkin tea pot that we got several years ago - no it doesn't matter that I am the only one who drinks tea - shhhh!)
The Why
The weather is turning autumnul, and Sarah has been nagging me to buy this pumpkin-shaped cast iron casserole dish that she's heard is in Lidl...
(Sarah here - it is £25!!! for a 3.7L oven and hob enameled metal cassarole dish compared to the Le Creuset one which is like £300 and smaller and though it is not going to be the life time cookware of the Le Creuset it has a 3 yr guarentee and Sainsbury's etc... all have cute pumpkin cassorole dishes but they are ceramic or stone ware and I have not had good luck with seasonal cookware that is ceramic - we have been lucky if it survives two years and cracks much quicker than normal cookware - we may just do a lot of this type of cooking compared to other households. Having said that Sainsbury's one is apparently £15 but I am out of halloween budget sadly! And I had already gotten us a mushroom serving bowl from ASDA for £10 back in August so doesn't count right? It was a different season! Besides I kept waiting till pans and dishes were worn out to get a nice set but Alaric keeps buying replacements so I think getting the pots and pans we like when they are affordable is the way forward rather than getting standins and never getting the nice stuff. On a more serious note I feel that the heavier the pan the more ergonomic the handle needs to be and whilst not perfect the Lidle pan has a better handle for me to grip with my sometimes defunct hands though I do prefer the style of the Creuset ones! Now back to the Alaric:)
So today I bought one, and made a pumpkin stew in it.
The recipe
(Sarah here - ok sorry we promised we would always do no nonsense recipes without the the long life stories before you get to the recipe but... but... I had to defend my honour!)
- One small pumpkin (sold as a "cooking pumpkin")
- Two courgettes
Chop 'em up into cubes of at most 2cm on a side and put them in your cooking pot, with a couple of table spoons of olive oil. Put the top on the pot and put it on a hob at high heat. Stir every few minutes while you work on the next bit:
- 400g of paneer
Chop it into 2cm cubes, and in another pan, fry it with a little oil, turning frequently until it starts to get browned on the sides. Then add 1tsp of ground black pepper, stir, and turn the heat down to minimum.
The veg in the stew pot should be looking browned in places now, and generally soft and mushy, so we can proceed to the next stage.
- 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
- 3 vegetable stock cubes
- 3 teaspoons of smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon of garlic salt (or separate salt and garlic, we just happened to have some nice garlic salt to hand)
- 1 tin of red kidney beans
- 1 tin of chickpeas
Add all these things to the vegetables, stir to mix it all up, and put the lid back on.
Wait ten minutes.
Add the paneer to the stew, stir, and put the lid back on the stew.
Wait five more minutes (I used this time to heat a gluten free tiger loaf in the oven, at gas mark 4)
Serve!
Oh, and the pumpkin seeds I scraped out of the pumpkin, once manually seperated from the slimy strings and rinsed, were spread on foil on a baking tray and baked at gas mark 4 for about half an hour, making them golden and crispy; they're a snack on their own:
A sensible version of this recipe will appear on Salaric Cooking for you all here.
Thu 16th Oct 2025 11:11 am 
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