Halloween was just a week ago and at the same time, it took away bright colored autumn and brought gloomy cloudy days in Denmark. But so what, my days can still be brightened with colorful pumpkin from Halloween season.

Today’s recipe is special in lots of ways. First of all, this is a recipe from the most respected cookbook author and nutritionist Siddika Kabir. Most of the Bangladeshi people start cooking after her book. Secondly, this particular piece of pumpkin is a gift from a friend, who grew it in her own garden in Norway!

I wrote a similar recipe called Kumror Chokka before, but this is slightly different than the first one. This recipe used three more ingredients like onion, black pepper and ginger paste.

To start, fry onion in a deep wok or pan.

While onion being fried, I made a paste with all the dry spices and ginger paste – turmeric, chili powder, coriander and black pepper. When onion became translucent or slightly golden, I added the spice paste mix to the pan.

I added little bit water, so the spices do not get burned. Water also helps to cook and get rid of raw flavor of the spices.

As you can see, water evaporated and oil starts to get separated. It means spices are done cooking.

Then I have added chickpea, salt and bayleaf to the pan. For this recipe I have used canned chickpea, which I drained and washed a bit before adding to pan. I stirred and fried chickpeas for four or five minutes.

After frying chickpeas with spices for a while, I added pumpkin cut in medium chunks. I sauteed everything for a few minutes too.

After sauteing pumpkin bits, I added green chili and water and covered the pan with lid. However, you have to be careful with the amount of water to add. Because pumpkin will release its own water and if you add too much, pumpkins would loose the texture and look like a mash. So I added just enough to cover the pumpkin bits.

As you can see, water got reduced and pumpkins got cooked. You can continue to cook more if you like but careful to stir too much, as it will break the texture of pumpkin.

At the end, I sprinkled cumin powder on top.

This is the final look of the pumpkin chickpea. You can enjoy it with plain rice, pita bread or ruti.

Finally to honor Siddika Kabir, I have put the picture of recipe here from the book. It is in Bangla but I will translate the exact recipe for you in the table below.

Recipe: 4-6 Servings Prep time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients: 3 cup Pumpkin 1 cup Chickpea (dried and soaked or canned) Spices and condiments: 1 tsp Ginger paste 1 tsp Coriander paste/powder 1/4tsp Black pepper paste/powder 1 tsp turmeric paste/powder 1 tsp chili paste/powder 1 Bay leaf 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed 1/4 teaspoon of Turmeric powder 5 Green Chili 2 Sliced onion 2 teaspoon Cumin Powder 1/3rd Cup Vegetable oil 1teaspoon Salt

Instruction: 1. Soak dry chickpea overnight. Wash and then boil. 2. Peel and dice the pumpkins in big square chunks. 3. Take a medium deep pan and heat oil. Add sliced onion and fry. When slightly golden, add all spices like turmeric, chili, coriander, black pepper . Add 1/2 cup of water and cook until it starts to separate oil. 4. Add chickpea, salt and bayleaf and cook for few minutes. 5. Then add pumpkin chunks and green chili. Stir and coat them well with spices and cook for five minutes. 6. Add 2-3 cups of water and cook in medium heat until pumpkin gets softened. 7. Sprinkle cumin powder to the end. When ready, serve with rice or hand made bread!