Roast spiced pumpkin, aubergines and tomatoes with green chutney recipe

Diana Henry, the telegraph’s award-winning cookery writer 19 OCTOBER 2021 • 2:41PM

Roast spiced pumpkin, aubergines and tomatoes with green chutney recipe

•  Diana Henry, the telegraph’s award-winning cookery writer

19 OCTOBER 2021 • 2:41PMFollow 

You can make this dish simpler by leaving out the green chutney, but the chutney is excellent (and goes with other dishes too – stick some of it under the skin of a chicken before roasting, for example). 

The spice paste – with the warmth of ginger and the heat of chilli – is also useful for other vegetables and for chicken too.

Prep time: 20 minutes | Cooking time: 1 hour 

Serves

Six

Ingredients

For the spice paste 

• 4cm fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
• 10 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 red chillies, halved, deseeded and chopped 
• 1 long shallot, roughly chopped
• Seeds from 10 cardamom pods
• Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tsp soft light brown sugar
• Juice of 2 limes
• 100ml olive oil (plus more if needed) 

For the vegetables

• 8 plum tomatoes
• 4 medium-large aubergines
• 900g pumpkin or squash
• 15g unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander 
• Natural yogurt and warm naan bread, to serve

For the chutney

• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 50g coriander leaves
• 15g mint leaves
• 25g baby spinach
• 100g creamed coconut, from a block, coarsely grated
• 1 green chilli, halved, deseeded and chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2.5cm fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
• Finely grated zest of 1 lime and juice of 3
• 1 tsp caster sugar (or more) if you want a sweeter version

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/190C fan/gas mark 6.
2. Put everything for the spice paste in a food processor and whizz. Scrape into a bowl.
3. Halve the tomatoes and put them into a roasting tin where they can lie in a single layer. Spoon some of the spice paste over them, then turn them over to make sure they’re coated. Finish with the cut sides up. Halve the aubergines lengthways and cut a cross-hatched pattern in their flesh side, without cutting all the way through (this helps the heat to penetrate). 
4. Put them in a large roasting tin where there is enough room for the pumpkin to fit later. Rub the aubergines with half the remaining paste. Roast the aubergines and the tomatoes in the oven for 20 minutes. Take the aubergines out but leave the tomatoes in for another 10-20 minutes.
5. Deseed the pumpkin and cut into slices about 2.5cm thick at the thickest part. There’s no need to peel them. Rub the rest of the spice pasta over the pumpkin (if there isn’t quite enough, add some olive oil to it). Add the pumpkin slices to the tin with the aubergines. 
6. Return to the oven. Roast for 20 minutes, turning the pumpkin slices over halfway through this time. The vegetables should be ready, tender and golden, but keep an eye on the tomatoes – they can take just 30 minutes rather than 40. All the vegetables should hold their shape, not completely collapsed.
7. To make the chutney put everything for it into a food processor with 100ml water. Whizz. If you want the chutney to be a little sweet, add the sugar. Taste for seasoning and sharpness then scrape into a serving bowl.
8. Put all the vegetables on a warm serving platter. Scatter with the coconut flakes and the coriander. Serve with the chutney, a bowl of yogurt and warm naan bread.