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Yet another pumpkin post! Yes, I have a lot of pumpkin to use up ;). Hot on the heels of my previous post on Pumpkin Laddu, here’s another post for Deepavali/ Diwali! Indian food is pretty tricky to make AIP-friendly, especially with all the rice and bean ingredients (plus not to mention the seed-based spices, nightshades and nuts!) so I knew I was up for a challenge making this dish AIP-compatible. I decided to go the sweet route as opposed to the savoury route as the latter would require side dishes that I can’t figure out how to make AIP! So here’s a sweet pongal and I think I managed to pull it off! My memories of traditional Sakkarai Pongal are rather vague as the last time I had eaten it was during Pongal festival 5 years ago, so I hope this is a good inspirational dish. My version is not as thick as the traditional version as winter squash is less starchy than rice, but nonetheless has a nice mouthfeel.
Pongal is a type of rice and split mung bean dish cooked with spices and nuts. That’s the gist of it, but there are myriads of variations and of course savoury or sweet ones. Even if you are not familiar with Sakkarai Pongal, I think you would enjoy this porridge-like dish! It doesn’t have to be paired with Indian foods and would make a nice hot gluten-free and grain-free breakfast and you could add a side of savoury protein to turn it into a complete meal. Need some ideas? How about some meat patties (for AIPers), egg omelette (Paleo folks) or even chickpea or tofu scramble (if you’re Vegan)?
A food processor is essential here (in fact, for AIP cooking!) as it’s great for making grain-like dishes. You could grate and chop the vegetables by hand but it’s much easier with a food processor! I use the Breville Sous Chef which is an arm saver and all it takes is less than 10 seconds to blitz up chunky cauliflower or winter squashes into tiny grains.
Here’s wishing you a happy Deepavali/ Diwali!
Where to get certain ingredients online:
- Coconut oil
- raisins
- coconut milk
- Tapioca starch
- raw honey
- Coconut sugar
- Sea salt
- ground cinnamon
- ground clove
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 3-4 cups winter squash, processed into grains
- ½-3/4 cauliflower, processed into grains
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch ground clove
- ¼ cup raisins
- 1 tbsp honey (omit for vegan option)
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar (or to taste; add 2 tbsp if not using honey)
- 1 pinch sea salt
- ⅓ cup coconut milk mixed with 2 tbsp tapioca starch
- Heat the coconut oil in a saucepan over medium heat
- Add in the winter squash and cauliflower 'grains' and saute until the vegetables begin to give out liquids
- Add in the ground cinnamon, clove and raisins, followed by honey, coconut sugar and sea salt
- Allow to simmer until the squash and cauliflower are cooked through
- Stir in the coconut milk and tapioca starch mixture and continue simmering until thickened
