Sri Lankan Pumpkin Curry Recipe

Hi there! We are fellow travel foodies Stefan and Sebastien of Nomadic Boys. Thanks to Sam and Zab for asking us to share a vegan friendly recipe on their blog!

We spent 3 weeks travelling around Sri Lanka before Christmas, and as Sam and Zab are due to visit soon, we thought this recipe might whet their appetite!

Sebastien and Stefan admiring Ella Rock in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka will pleasantly surprise you. The food is incredible. It ranks at the top of all the cuisines we’ve gone face down in during our travels (up there with China in our opinion).

Sri Lanka will also surprise you because it’s a heaven for vegans with many different types of fruit and vegetable based curries.

This is a recipe for pumpkin curry we learnt during our cooking class in Ella and recently tried this as part of our Christmas meal.

Stefan learning the recipe in a cooking class

This recipe was enough to fill up these two greedy boys:

Ingredients for Sri Lankan pumpkin curry

• 250g of pumpkins
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 cloves of chopped garlic
• 1 green chilli sliced
• 2 tablespoons of curry leaves (around 10)
• half teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds
• 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon of curry powder
• 250g of coconut milk
• 2 table spoons of coconut oil (or canola oil) for cooking
• salt and pepper
• water (around 350g or 1.5 cups)

How to make the pumpkin curry

1. Wash the pumpkin, remove the seeds and cut into small chunks of around 2 inches (5cm) each, leaving the skin on.

2. Heat pan with 2 tablespoons of coconut oil.

3. Add the chopped onions and 3 garlic cloves and cook on medium heat, uncovered, for around 5 minutes until they are golden.

4. Add the pumpkin chunks with around 350g of water, cooking on a high heat.

5. At the same time, mix in the sliced green chilli, cinnamon stick, curry leaves, half teaspoon of turmeric and 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds, chilli powder and curry powder.

6. Cook on medium heat, covered, for around 15-20 minutes until the pumpin is cooked. Carefully stir ingredients during cooking to avoid mashing up the pumpkin chunks.

7. Mix in the 250g of coconut milk and flavour with salt and pepper. Continue cooking uncovered on medium heat for 2 more minutes.

8. Remove from heat and serve with rice.