Pumpkin Caviar Recipe with Carrots and Garlic – Easy Vegetable Spread
Homemade vegetable caviar made from pumpkin is a very easy appetizer to make. Ripe pumpkin is cut into pieces, stewed with other vegetables and then blended into a puree. Since the flesh is usually quite sweet, vinegar and plenty of spices go into the caviar to give it a pleasant, piquant flavor.
All kinds of vegetable caviar are often counted as salads. There may be some sense in that – I would call them pureed salads. I used to be very fond of eggplant caviar – the “overseas” kind, as a famous movie character put it. True, we ate it by the spoonful. At home it was made quite often in season. It turned out especially tasty from young eggplants roasted over an open flame.
But I doubt I am mistaken in saying that the most common and beloved “folk” appetizer is zucchini caviar. As far as I remember, it never disappeared from the shelves, even during the harshest economic crisis. It is made from the most affordable vegetables – carrots, onions, sometimes tomatoes, and zucchini, which were always plentiful. By the way, zucchini are fried for caviar, and they are not orange. Yet store-bought caviar is always quite brightly colored.
I suspect that most of it is made with pumpkin, which yields more and costs less. Of course, you could assume the color comes from orange carrots, but for such an intense shade they would have to make up at least half of the product. Still, zucchini caviar is almost always very tasty, and fussing over its color is just nitpicking. We decided to make pumpkin caviar with vegetables, and the homemade recipe turned out a real success.
Ideally, the pumpkin flesh should be ripe and free of any astringent taste. The color of the flesh can range from pale yellow to orange – it does not really matter. If the pumpkin tastes very sweet, you will need to add more spices and acid to the caviar. How hard the fruit is makes no difference.
Unlike vegetable caviar made from eggplant and zucchini, we did not fry the pumpkin. It is enough to mix the sliced flesh with fried onion and carrot, then stew it with spices until soft. Once the pumpkin caviar is pureed, add vinegar – plain distilled or wine vinegar. This is to taste; what matters is that the finished caviar no longer tastes sweet. By the way, this is a great vegetarian dish. But it is hardly health food – it has a lot of sugars and spices.
Ingredients
0.5-0.6 l
- Pumpkin 1 kg
- Carrots 1
- Onions 2
- Garlic 1-2 cloves
- Vegetable oil 3 tbsp
- Wine vinegar to taste
- Salt, black pepper, paprika, bay leaf to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Pumpkin caviar is very good for you, but a bit high in calories. It contains fairly sweet vegetables – carrots and the pumpkin itself. Then again, it is an appetizer, and you don't eat much of it. The finished caviar keeps in the fridge for up to a week. It can also be preserved by sterilizing it in jars. Before cooking, peel and chop all the ingredients in advance.
- Heat vegetable oil in a deep frying pan with a lid. Finely chop the peeled onion and fry it in the oil over medium heat. The onion should begin to brown. Finely grate the peeled carrot and add it to the fried onion. Fry the carrot, stirring, until it softens and tints the onion a pleasant yellowish color.
- The pumpkin needs to be peeled. A warning: don't even try to do this with a ceramic knife – you are guaranteed to break it. A pumpkin is very hard, and its rind is like armor. Even with a steel chef's knife it is quite difficult. Remove the seeds and scrape the soft fibers out of the pumpkin. Cut the pumpkin into small cubes – that way it softens better.
- Add all the cubes to the pan with the other vegetables. Finely chop the garlic and add it to the pan. Season lightly with salt and pepper, add a little sweet paprika and 3–4 bay leaves. Stir, pour in a cup of hot water and put the pan on the heat. Once the liquid comes to a boil, cover the pan with the lid and turn the heat down to the minimum. For the pumpkin caviar to be smooth and tasty, the pieces must become completely soft. Pumpkin usually stews for 30–40 mins, which is enough.
- Next, remove all the bay leaves from the vegetable mixture. You will need a blender to grind the whole mixture into a coarse puree. You can also do it with hand tools, but then noticeable pieces will remain. Pour the pumpkin caviar back into the pan and put it on the heat.
- From here on, everything is to taste. Add vinegar to the pumpkin caviar. Wine vinegar is better, as it is not so sharp, but plain 6–9% distilled vinegar will also do. Many people use apple cider vinegar or a little citric acid. It is a matter of taste. Start with a small amount, then taste. It is impossible to say how much vinegar you will need – it all depends on how sweet the pumpkin was and on your taste. If you like, also add salt and black pepper.
- Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 3–5 mins. The pumpkin caviar is ready – all that is left is to let it cool. It keeps well in the fridge for several days. To my taste, the best way to serve this appetizer is on sandwiches with fresh bread. Ever since childhood I have loved a little mashed potato with milk sausages and tasty vegetable caviar for breakfast.
Yield: 0.5-0.6 l Calories: 65 Prep: 15 mins Cook: 45 mins Ready in: 1 h (plus cooling time) Category: Snacks and Sauces Cuisine: European Rating: