I got the squash at a food bank at a local church. I already had the paneer in the fridge. I’ve been eating a lot of Italian recently and fancied a change – some vegetarian Indian.
I gave it to my granddaughter when she came in from nursery. Her first words when she comes in are ‘tea!’ while pointing at the kettle. She has her own little teacup and manages quite well. But sometimes will upturn the cup, just to watch the liquid drop onto the floor then mess around with it.
After nursery she’s often starving. She’s really small for her age, 18 months, but she eats so much. It’s a pleasure to feed her. She’s quite good at eating with a spoon or fork as my daughter did baby-led weaning which encourages good co-ordination but will also use her cute little fists or be fed.
She’s not too messy now. Sometimes she just spits food out on the floor, then the next minute she’ll be in the mood again.
I made this curry quite mild, just a couple of whole Kashmiri chillies, which don’t have much heat, because of her. It was very tasty though!
Butternut squash and paneer curry
Ingredients
For the butternut squash:
- 1 butternut squash, skinned, de-seeded, chopped into 2 inch squares,
- 3 tbsps olive oil
- sprinkle ground or whole cumin
- sprinkle sea salt
For the curry:
- 3 tbsps vegetable oil or ghee
- 1 tbsp mustard seeds
- 2 brown onions, diced
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tbsp cumin, ground
- 1 tbsp coriander, ground
- 2 black cardamom
- 2 kashmiri chillies, or more, to your taste, whole
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 star anise whole
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 cube frozen ginger or 2 inches fresh ginger, chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 100g creamed coconut paste (half a standard pack), chopped up
- 2 tbsps tamarind paste
- 250 ml water
- 1 block paneer, chopped into squares 1/2 inch
- 1 tbsp heaped of vegetable stock
- salt to taste
- 1 pinch mango powder, (amchoor)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c. Prep the butternut squash.
- Put the butternut squash onto a baking tray tossed in the olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and cumin. Roast for 20 mins or so, until soft and cooked through. Remove from the oven. Set aside.
- In a deep saucepan on a medium heat, heat up the vegetable oil or ghee
- Add the mustard seeds and let them pop.
- Then add the onion, soften.
- Add the spices: cinnamon, cumin, coriander, cardamom, chillies, turmeric, star anise. Cook for a couple of minutes
- Add the garlic, ginger, tomato paste, creamed coconut and tamarind paste. Allow to cook a few minutes.
- Add the water, stir until the sauce thickens up, perhaps 10 minutes.
- Add the paneer, cook in the sauce for 5 minutes or so.
- Add the vegetable stock, salt, mango powder.
- Finally add the butternut squash chunks. Stir into the sauce without breaking up the chunks. Allow the squash to absorb the sauce.
- Serve with rice and yoghurt and wedges of lime or lemon. Garnish with fresh coriander.
Your butternut squash and paneer curry sounds absolutely delightful! It’s wonderful how you incorporated your granddaughter’s preferences into the recipe. Your attention to detail and thoughtful approach really shines through in this post.
Keep sharing your delicious creations!
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When do you take the cinnamon and star anise out? Do you crush the cardamom first?
I think a good curry base is a mix of ground and whole spices. I just leave the whole cinnamon and star anise in, same with the black cardamom. I’ll just lift them out at the end or even on the plate.
I have reused cinnamon sticks as they are so expensive. Just leave them to dry and use them again.