Pumpkin in Coconut Soup

Pumpkin is a very versatile garden produce. It can be cooked in many ways. Baked, made into soup, add into cake and other dishes and many more. The sweet flavor and soft but solid texture really makes it loved by many people.

There are some Malay desserts and kuehs which use pumpkin in it such as Pumpkin Sira, Pumpkin Lepat and Pumpkin Pengat. Sira is a dessert where fruits or other foods are cooked in the sugar syrup, with added Pandan leaves and sometimes cloves in it. Lepat is a dish made from the mixture of wheat flour and fruit paste and wrapped in banana leaf. And Pengat is a dish which the fruit is cooked in sweet coconut soup.

In this entry I will share the recipe of Pumpkin Pengat, or Pumpkin in Coconut Soup. This dish is suitable to be served as dessert, during tea break and even dinner. This recipe is prepared with added glutinous rice, but the addition is optional.

Ready in 1 hour

For 6 servings

Ingredients

• Half of a medium sized pumpkin.
• 500 ml coconut milk diluted with water to form 5 cups of diluted coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 cup of palm sugar
• 3 Pandan leaves (optional)
• 2 to 3 cups of cooked glutinous rice*
• Water

Method

• Cut the pumpkin into large chunks
• Wash and boil the pumpkin with 2 cups of water or until tender.
• Remove the water from the pot.
• Mix coconut milk with palm sugar and salt in a bowl.
• Then pour the milk into the pumpkin pot.
• Cook with low heat and add Pandan leaves.
• Turn off the heat when the coconut milk reach boiling point.
• Add cooked glutinous rice when served.
• To cook glutinous rice, wash 1 cup rice and add 2 cups water. Cook with low heat.

*Glutinous rice can be cooked with coconut milk or without it. Addition of coconut milk can add creamy taste to it.