Pumpkin rice
Ingredients
- 400 g pumpkin , or butternut squash
- 100 g coconut cream
- 4 allspice berries
- 4 spring onions
- ½ a bunch of fresh thyme , (15g)
- 2 Scotch bonnet chillies
- ½ a pointed cabbage , (400g)
- 450 g basmati rice
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 onion
- olive oil
- 200 g ripe mixed-colour cherry tomatoes
- 200 g okra
- 1 x 700 g jar of butter beans
How to make it
- Peel and deseed the pumpkin, then chop into 2cm chunks.
- Pour 800ml of boiling salted water into a large pan over a medium-high heat, add the coconut cream and leave to melt, then add the pumpkin and allspice berries.
- Trim the spring onions and bash with your fist, then halve and drop into the pan with half the thyme sprigs and the whole Scotch bonnets (no holes or bruises please).
- Roughly chop the cabbage, discarding the core, then add to the pan with ½ a teaspoon each of sea salt and black pepper. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, then rinse and stir in the rice.
- Pop the lid back on, turn the heat down to low and cook for 12 minutes, or until the water is absorbed. Turn the heat off and leave to steam.
- Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the garlic and peel and roughly chop the onion, then place in a large non-stick frying pan on a medium heat with 2 tablespoons of oil and cook for 5 minutes.
- Halve the tomatoes, then remove the chillies from the rice, carefully deseed, slice, and add half to the pan (feel free to add more later, to taste, and remember to clean your knife, board and hands thoroughly after).
- Pick in the remaining thyme leaves, then trim and halve the okra and add to the pan. Cover and cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, then tip in the beans (juices and all) to warm through for a few minutes.
- Fork up the rice, breaking up the pumpkin, and serve with the beans, seasoning everything to perfection.