Pumpkin and beef curry on the left, mildly spiced coconut Taro on the right and a dollop of ChilliChoko sauce…
We currently have a lot of pumpkin. We also have a fair bit of Taro which was dug up and I had to do something with. So I made a pumpkin and beef curry and a mildly spiced coconut Taro.
I started by putting the unpeeled whole Taro in a large pot, added water and put it on the stove to boil. Then I put some ghee to melt in a pot on the stove and cut 500gr of homegrown beef into cubes. I added the beef to the pot and stirred it on occasion, to brown it on all sides. Whilst the beef was browning I peeled, pitted and cut up some pumpkin (around 1/2 a medium to large pumpkin). I added the cubed pumpkin to the beef once it had browned. I added 1 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1 1/2 tsp of my favourite powdered curry mix and a can of coconut cream. Then I put the lid on and brought it to the boil. When it boiled I lowered the heat to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pumpkin was soft.
Once the Taro had boiled for around 20 minutes to half an hour, I drained the water and ran cold water over the Taro in a colander in the sink. With a small sharp knife, I cut and peeled away the skin and any blemishes, and chopped the Taro in medium size cubes. I put the Taro back in a pot and added coconut cream and some chopped up Italian parsley, one large leaf of mustard greens, some basil leaves and some endive, and added about 1/4 of a chopped up red chilli. I added 1 tsp of sea salt and warmed the pot until the greens were nice and soft.
To add some extra heat, you can add a dollop of my ChilliChoko sauce.
Great alternative to having rice with your curry, and a lovely way to prepare Taro. The taro tastes great for breakfast with some sausages and eggs too!!
©2012 Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast – Permaculture recipe: using pumpkin and taro.
Author: Permeco Inc.
Not for profit organisation and charity based in Queensland, Australia, focusing on permaculture education and environmental research. Please note that all articles and recipes written under this label on this website prior to 2025 are written and copyrighted by Willa Sevenstern (previously known as Zaia Kendall).