Pumpkin Toor Dal Soup w/ Avocado Tahini Puree

I don't know about your bodega, but mine sells pre-slaughtered pumpkin pretty much year round, which is AWESOME. It is always on special for 99 cents a pound. Flatbush Ave. between Maple and Midwood. Go get some.


Today at the bodega, I asked a lady who was checking out if she ever cooks with pumpkin, and she said Yes. I asked, "What do you make?" and she said, "I make pumpkin rice and pumpkin soup...." Then her eyes drifted to the piece of pumpkin I had picked out and she shook her head, handed her friend her wallet and said, "Hold on, you pay for this stuff while I help this girl find a better piece of pumpkin."

So don't pick a piece with soft edges, even if it is the smallest piece and you don't want too much. Go for the firm, pointy-edged, pre-cut pumpkin that has a nice light orange hue. This lady was awesome; I think I remember her name was Marlisha, she was a Pisces (I gathered from her Pisces earrings), and she didn't like to have her picture taken. Marlisha makes some bad-ass pumpkin rice, which I made her tell me the recipe for:

Grate a piece of pumpkin, like you're grating cheese, and put it in the pot as you're cooking your rice. Add a little bit of olive oil, salt, and some coconut milk. She uses her natural herb shaker to give it some flecks of green when she's done. I'm totally making this. Here's a really unflattering picture of Marlisha and me: She is going, "Fine, I'll be a sport, take the damn picture," and I'm going, "Heck yeah, Pumpkin Rice!"


This is the recipe I set out to share with you in this post. It is adapted from Yamuna Devi's "Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking," which is my Bible. You should buy it if you're remotely interested in Indian Cooking, for real. Look, I'm giving you a REAL recipe!

2/3 cup toovar dal or yellow split peas
6 1/2 cups water
2 cups peeled pumpkin
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 onions
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (not as necessary if you don't have)
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 tablespoon jaggery or maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon asafetida powder
12 curry leaves, minced
minced cilantro

Rinse toovar dal by swishing it around in water in the pan and draining off water about three times before you add ~6 cups and bring it to a boil on your stove. Add pumpkin, ginger, lemon juice, bay leaves, turmeric, some oil and some salt, and boil it covered until the toovar dal is soft and the pumpkin get mushy, about 45 minutes.

Coarsely mince your onions. Heat some peanut or canola or coconut oil (or ghee is yummy too) in a skillet, and put in mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and red chili flakes. Stir a little bit until mustard seeds turn grey and start to spit around like Mexican jumping beans and cumin seeds get brown. Throw in asafetida and curry leaves, then onions. Saute until onions are caramelized.

When soup is done, turn off heat, pick out bay leaves, and whisk until smooth and creamy. Stir in the onion mixture and some salt. A little garam masala can be good too as a little finisher, which I think I do. I like this soup to have a real pureed texture, so I put it in my food processor. Add minced cilantro.

To make the avocado tahini puree: Halve avo and put it in the food processor with two tablespoons tahini, some lemon juice, salt, pepper, and one raw garlic clove. Add a little bit of water, and blend until it is smooth and creamy. Add the water very slowly bit by bit so it is not too thin. It's best to have a sour cream consistency. Put a dollop of this on your soup, garnish with some pumpkin seeds, and WALLAH!