North Indian sweet and sour pumpkin curry made in a pressure cooker or instant pot. This is a delicious and healthy vegetable curry that can be made in less than 30 minutes for a weeknight dinner. Vegan & gluten free!
Is it pumpkin season yet? Oh...yes! Fall is here and we are enjoying the abundance of pumpkins in our grocery stores.
I am going to share a very simple North Indian pumpkin curry. It has the sweetness of pumpkin, spiciness of the Indian spices and tanginess of the dry mango powder or lemon juice. Pick out those kabocha squash or butternut squash and try this easy curry in your instant pot.
Pumpkin is also known as kaddu or petha in Hindi, so another name for this delicious curry is kaddu ki subzi or punjabi pethe ki subzi. Pair this pumpkin curry with something spicy. Enjoy it with paratha or naan, or even better with poori.
Another way I have been using all the pumpkins is making pumpkin puree, which can be used in a variety of dishes. I have used it in pancakes, parathas, and pie's already. And if you want to try a Thai curry, check out this Thai Pumpkin Red Curry made in the instant pot.
Health benefits of pumpkin
The bright orange color of pumpkin easily gives away that pumpkin is loaded with an important antioxidant, beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A in the body. In the conversion to vitamin A, beta carotene performs many important functions in overall health. A diet rich in foods containing beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer and offers protect against heart disease. Beta-carotene offers protection against other diseases as well as some degenerative aspects of aging.
Pumpkins also have loads of fiber, and they are low in calories. Hence they are a great way to include fiber rich vegetables in your diet.
How to make Indian Pumpkin Curry in Pressure Cooker?
I used butternut squash for this recipe, but you could use the large orange pumpkins or kabocha squash as well. The hardest part of this recipe is peeling the pumpkin. I use a peeler to peel the pumpkin and then cut it into pieces. You don't have to cut very small pieces as after pressure cooking, we are going to mash the pumpkin.
Cook this pumpkin curry in ghee. It adds tremendously to the taste. You can also make ghee at home in the instant pot, see recipe here. To make this vegan, use your favorite plant based oil.
Start with heating the pressure cooker and sauteing cumin seeds, onion, chilies, ginger and garlic. Once they start to change color, add the tomato, spice, pumpkin pieces and some water.
That is it, now close the pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. Once the cooking is done, quick release the pressure. Pumpkin should be cooked. Add the tanginess with dry mango powder or lemon juice.
Pro Tips for making delicious Pumpkin Curry
- If the pumpkin is not as sweet, then add some sugar, but this is completely optional.
- You can choose to eat the pumpkin curry as is or you can mash some pieces using a masher. I prefer the in between, so I mash some pieces but not all.
- If there is any residual water, which may happen depending on the pumpkin, you can change to saute mode and cook for couple of minutes. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!
What to pair with pumpkin curry?
- Enjoy with parathas (indian flatbread) or naan.
- A side of yogurt goes great with this curry.
- A light lentil soup (moong dal - yellow or green)
I enjoyed this pumpkin curry with methi or fenugreek parathas for lunch 🙂
Enjoy this easy and delicious Pumpkin Curry.
If you like this recipe, you might like the below curries made in a pressure cooker:
Instant Pot Pumpkin Curry Recipe (Pressure Cooker)
Ingredients
- 600 grams Pumpkin about 4 cups cut pieces
- 1 tablespoon Ghee or Oil
- ½ teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 1 Green Chili Pepper slit (optional)
- ½ tablespoon Ginger minced
- ½ tablespoon Garlic minced
- ½ Onion diced
- 1 Tomato chopped
- ¼ cup Water
- 2 teaspoon Dry Mango powder (Amchur) or lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon Sugar adjust to taste
- Cilantro to garnish
Spices
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 2 teaspoon Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- ¼ teaspoon Cayenne or Red chili powder (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon Garam Masala
- 1 teaspoon Salt adjust to taste
Instructions
- Start the instant pot in SAUTE mode and heat oil in it. Add cumin seeds and saute for 30 seconds.
- Add green chili, onions, ginger and garlic paste and saute for 2 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and spices.
- Add cut pumpkin pieces and water. Mix well. Press Cancel and close the instant pot lid with vent in sealing position.
- Set instant pot to MANUAL or pressure cook for 5 minutes at high pressure. When the instant pot beeps, do a quick pressure release manually.
- Add dry mango powder, sugar and mix with the pumpkin. You can eat this curry as is or mash some of the cooked pumpkin pieces with a masher in the pot.
- If you prefer a dry consistency, change setting to SAUTE mode and cook for couple of minutes.
- Garnish with cilantro and pumpkin curry is ready to be enjoyed with parathas or naan.
Notes
- If the pumpkin is not as sweet, then add some sugar, but this is completely optional.
- This recipe was created in a 6qt Instant Pot DUO60 Multi-use Pressure Cooker.
Note: Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
Cate says
I plugged in all the ingredients to MyFitnessPal and it's actually 176 calories per serving, not 100. Keen to make this though 🙂 Please just make sure the nutrition panel is accurate
Meeta Arora says
Hi Cate - I use an automated calculator which uses the "Spoonacular API" to get the nutrition values. Please do check with your preferred calculator if you are on a diet. I try my best to give accurate information, but unfortunately it is not possible for me to confirm the facts with multiple calculators. Hope that helps!
Tracey M. says
So good! So easy! I baked the pumpkin upside down on a baking sheet at 350F convection for 40 minutes and the skins slid right off - perfect. I didn't have coconut milk (who am I??), so I boiled 1 cup of coconut and 2 cups of water for 5 minutes, then immersion blended which yielded about 2.5 cups of coconut milk. I also followed your advice regarding the overheating, and added 1 cup of vegetable broth. It worked. Thanks for this recipe!
Piping Pot Curry says
Hi Tracey - So good to hear that you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing back 🙂
Saba says
The pumpkin is so hard, how do you cut it up- oven time first?
Meeta Arora says
Hi Saba - I use a small sugar pumpkin and do cut it up first before using in this recipe. I have not tried this recipe with baking the pumpkin first. This recipe could work well with cut pieces of butternut squash too, in case that is easier to get. I see cubes of butternut squash available at Whole Foods and Trader Joes frequently. I hope that helps!
Sarah Williams says
Blew my mind. So quick, so delicious. Thank you for this genius recipe, it's going to be a winter staple of ours now! I will say that I added a bit of vegetable broth as I had a recipe similar to this and was really just looking for a technique with the instapot when I found your recipe. But now that I know how great this turned out, I'll try it without the vegetable broth.
Meeta Arora says
Hi Sarah - Happy to hear you enjoyed the Pumpkin Curry 🙂
Srilekha says
Thanks Meeta for this lovely recipe. I just cooked it following the exact same steps u mentioned. Just added few 2 potatoes too as I didn't have that much pumpkin. It turned superb yummy. That makes me also think that one can make 'dam aloo' too using the same ingredients. Thanks once again.
Meeta Arora says
Hey Srilekha - So happy to hear you enjoyed the pumpkin curry with potatoes. Please do share if you try dum aloo with this recipe. Thank you for sharing back your review!
Diana says
How can something this delicious have so few calories!! I cannot imagine serving this and getting anything but raves (especially because all I get are raves). Cannot say enough good things. Heavenly!!
Meeta Arora says
Hey Diana - Yay! Thank you so much for your kind words and for sharing back your review 🙂
Punam Paul says
Nice and interesting recipe. Will give it a try.
Meeta Arora says
Hey Punam - Thank you ?
Amy says
Would you ever add chickpeas to this and if so, would it require more time and liquid? Thanks!
Meeta Arora says
Hey Amy - I have never tried chickpeas with this curry. But it could work well with canned chickpeas. No need for extra cooking time or liquid with canned chickpeas. Please do let me know if you try it.
Maryanne says
Hi -thanks so much for your recipes. Question for you- is there any draw back to cooking the pumpkin in the instantpot first to make peeling it unnecessary (the cooked pumpkin can be removed pretty easily that way) What do you think?
Piping Pot Curry says
Hey Maryanne - you can add cooked pumpkin too. It might be a bit mushy that what I show, but the taste would be the same. You do not need to pressure cook again if you are already cooking the pumpkin. Just cook it on sauté to mix well with the onion, tomato & spices.
Rachelle says
Just wondering about the little amount of liquid. Will this be enough for all the pumpkin?
Thank you!
Rachelle
Piping Pot Curry says
Great question. Pumpkin also releases a lot of intrinsic water, which helps to cook it. This was for 1.3 lbs of pumpkin.