Recipe: Butternut Squash and Yellow Split Peas Curry

Originally this was something I threw together because I had a butternut squash sitting around that needed to be used. I wanted to do something that wasn’t too complicated, though you might think otherwise when you glance at the list of ingredients. I also had a bottle of red curry powder that I purchased about a year ago when we were done in California.

The first time I prepared the whole thing in a large saucepan. Yesterday, I sautéed part of it, and then threw everything else into a Crockpot and left it to cook while we were at church.

Serve with rice.

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Serves: 4 – 6
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes (or 10 minutes plus 4-8 hours in a Crockpot)

Ingredients

• 1 small (about 2 lbs.) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and large diced
• 1 cup dried yellow split peas, sorted and rinsed
• 1 T. vegetable oil
• 1/2 t. black or yellow mustard seeds
• 1/2 t. whole cumin seeds
• 2 dried red chili peppers, crushed (about 1 tsp. pre-crushed)
• 1/2 cup ground meat or vege-burger (optional)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 inch fresh ginger, minced
• 1 serrano chile, seeded (optional) and sliced
• 1 t. ground cumin
• 1 t. ground coriander
• 1/4 t. ground cardamom
• 1/4 t. ground turmeric
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 to 2 t. salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup loosely packed chopped, fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, cook split peas according to package directions, about 20-30 minutes.
2. In a large saucepan or covered sauté pan, heat oil over medium heat. When hot, drop in mustard and cumin seeds and fry until mustard seeds start to pop, about 1 minute. Add crushed red peppers. If using ground meat or vege-burger, add and and brown. Add onion, garlic, ginger, and serrano and fry until onion begins to soften.
3. Add ground cumin, coriander, cardamom, and turmeric. Fry another minute, stirring frequently.
4. Add broth and butternut squash. Add more water if needed, to nearly cover the squash. Add salt and pepper. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to fast simmer. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until squash begins to get tender.
5. Drain cooked split peas, then add to squash. Continue to simmer and cook for another 10-15 minutes until peas break down and squash also begins to break down into a thick sauce.
6. Remove from heat and mix in fresh cilantro, if desired.

Changes for Crockpot

• Skip step 1.
• Perform step 2 as given above.
• Place results of step 2 into Crockpot.
• Add split peas and ingredients in steps 3 through 5 into Crockpot. Cook at high for 4-5 hours, or low for 7-8 hours until peas and squash are soft.
• Add cilantro before serving, if desired.