Pumpkin Laddu (Paleo AIP, Vegan)

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Every year on the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving, many pumpkin farms around Quebec would hold special pumpkin festivals and events.  This year we brought home 6 large squashes and one of which was a large and squat orange squash.  I think it was an orange kabocha squash but I’m not certain.  It had been sitting in a corner, waiting to be tackled someday.  So this week, my 2 year old son decided to tackle it!

I was in the kitchen prepping a spaghetti squash and he had remembered the last time he and his elder brother did a pumpkin activity.  He had loads of fun pulling the seeds out of the pumpkin and so this time around he approached the pumpkin and pointed at it, exclaiming ‘pum-kin actiwetee!’  So I helped him carry the pumpkin to the kitchen counter and he clambered onto his indispensable step stool where he got to work.  This time around he didn’t seem particularly keen on gutting this large orange squash all by himself, so after 5 minutes he went ‘all done!’ and waved his hands.  I finished gutting the pumpkin for him and stored it in the fridge, undecided on what to make with it.

Fast forward a couple of days and I remembered I had to do something with the pumpkin lest it turn moldy.  So I sharpened my knife, removed the skin and cut it into manageable chunks.  Much better!  It was getting tiresome doing ‘fridge Tetris’ with such a huge pumpkin in the fridge.  What to do with the chunks though?  I remembered the Hindu festival of lights known as Deepavali/ Diwali was quickly approaching and pondered on the idea of a pumpkin-based treat.

So here we have it, pumpkin laddu!  What are laddu, you may ask?  Laddu (or ladoo) are a type of popular Indian sweet rolled into round shapes.  For this laddu, I used grated fresh coconut instead of desiccated shredded coconut.  If you ever see fresh mature coconuts in your area, do give them a try!  With AIP treats I usually try to decrease the amount of sweeteners as much as possible (up to 85%!) compared to traditional recipes, but this time around I could only decrease the sweetener by half (well, almost).  They pack a sweet punch, but are still not as sweet as traditional Indian sweets, so please exercise self-restraint when enjoying them.

Though sweets are enjoyed especially during Deepavali, let’s not forget the savoury dishes!  Indian dishes are particularly tricky to make AIP especially with the omission of seed-based spices and nightshade spices, but my fellow AIP blogger friend Jo at Comfort Bites is quite a wizard at creating dishes with an Indian touch!  Here are some of her AIP-friendly dishes for a festive holiday:

• Mutton and Spinach Curry
• King Prawn Curry
• Indian Spiced Roast Chicken
• Lamb Biryani
• Indian-style Goat Curry
• Lamb Keema Curry

You could accompany these dishes with my roti or try my keema as well!

Where to get certain ingredients online:

• Coconut oil
• Coconut flour
• Medjool dates
• ground cinnamon
• coconut milk
• Coconut sugar
• Sea salt
• Rose water