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 enjoy 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, the spiciness of Indian spices, and the tanginess of 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 by making pumpkin puree, which can be used in various dishes. I have used it in pancakes, parathas, and pies already.
If you want to try more pumpkin recipes, check out this Thai Pumpkin Red Curry and Curried Pumpkin Soup made in the instant pot.
Table of Contents
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 converting 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 cancer types and offer protection against heart disease. Beta-carotene offers protection against other diseases and 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 the Pressure Cooker?
I used butternut squash for this recipe, but you could also use large orange pumpkins or kabocha squash. 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 of the pumpkin, 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. 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 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. The 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, add some sugar, which is completely optional.
- You can 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 a couple of minutes. Garnish with cilantro, and enjoy!
What to pair with pumpkin curry?
- Enjoy with parathas (Indian flatbread) or naan.
- A side of raita 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
- 1/2 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 1 Green Chili Pepper, slit (optional)
- 1/2 tablespoon Ginger, minced
- 1/2 tablespoon Garlic , minced
- 1/2 Onion, diced
- 1 Tomato , chopped
- 1/4 cup Water
- 2 teaspoon Dry Mango powder (Amchur), or lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon Sugar, adjust to taste
- Cilantro, to garnish
Spices
- 1/4 teaspoon Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 2 teaspoon Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne or Red chili powder , (optional)
- 1/4 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.
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
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!
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!
Hi Tracey – So good to hear that you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing back 🙂
The pumpkin is so hard, how do you cut it up- oven time first?
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!
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.
Hi Sarah – Happy to hear you enjoyed the Pumpkin Curry 🙂
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.
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!
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!!
Hey Diana – Yay! Thank you so much for your kind words and for sharing back your review 🙂
Nice and interesting recipe. Will give it a try.
Hey Punam – Thank you ?
Would you ever add chickpeas to this and if so, would it require more time and liquid? Thanks!
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.
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?
Hey Maryanne Рyou 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 saut̩ to mix well with the onion, tomato & spices.
Just wondering about the little amount of liquid. Will this be enough for all the pumpkin?
Thank you!
Rachelle
Great question. Pumpkin also releases a lot of intrinsic water, which helps to cook it. This was for 1.3 lbs of pumpkin.