Roasted Pumpkin with Simmered Chicken and Yogurt Sauce

The fall season got the best of me this year, and I went out and bought myself a nice big pumpkin! Much to my 4 year old's disappointment, we didn't turn it into a jack-o-lantern. Instead, we got to work on peeling and cutting this tough vegetable into cubes. Then I portioned out the cubes into Ziploc baggies and froze them. But first...I made this...

This recipe generously fed 4 adults, with a bit of leftovers. The leftovers were awesome the next day!

Ingredients

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-About 3 cups cubed pumpkins

-Onion powder

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-32 ounce tub of yogurt (I used nonfat organic, use what you'd like)

-2 & 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch, mixed with 1 tablespoon water

-1 pound chicken breast pieces, cut into cubes (about the same size as the pumpkins)

-Enough water to cover chicken and make broth (about 6 cups)

-Cinnamon stick, 4 bay leaves, 5 cardamons

-2 onions, cut into strips

-1/2 cup pine nuts (I had to make this with slivered almonds, it was still good)

Directions

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-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

-Toss pumpkin cubes in a baking dish with onion powder, salt, pepper and oil. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the pumpkin seems roasted and lightly browned.

-In the meantime, boil water in a 4 quart pot. Once boiling, drop in the chicken pieces and add the cinnamon stick, bay leaves, cardamon and salt. Simmer on medium low while pumpkin is roasting.

-Remove pumpkin cubes from oven and gently drop into the chicken broth, turn heat to lowest setting and continue to simmer for 20 minutes.

- In another pot, about 6 or 8 quart, mix cornstarch mixture with yogurt. Turn on heat to medium, and continue stirring (to avoid clumping or sticking or yogurt) with a wooden spoon until the yogurt starts to bubble.

-Slowly add the chicken broth (ONLY) with a ladle, and mix after each ladleful. Continue this until you get the desired consistency ( I used all the broth that I had made). Heat through.

-Throw out the cinnamon, bay leaves and cardamon, and add chicken breast pieces and pumpkin. Turn off heat and avoid over stirring, so the pumpkin doesn't get mashed.

-Saute onion in olive oil until it is soft and almost crispy. About 3/4 of the way through, add the pine nuts and toast them. Serve over the pumpkin and yogurt dish.

-I serve this with rice. It was divine!

Shortcuts

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-Although there isn't too much work involved in making this (you can go off and do whatever you want while the pumpkin is roasting and the chicken and broth are simmering), you can save time by using leftover shredded chicken and pre-made broth (but I'm not guaranteeing the results!)

-Also, you can pre-roast a bunch of the pumpkin cubes before freezing them in the baggies, and you can therefore skip that step in future recipes.