Thai Pumpkin Sweet Potato Curry

Born into a Goan Family, coconut is woven into all aspects of our culture - its a must ingredient for every goan dish. Coconut also plays a very important role in our religious rituals. I didn't think much of it till my dad was diagnosed with Heart ailments and the doc asked us to go easy on the use of coconut. It must have been so hard for my mom to reinvent all our recipes without the use of coconut.
Its even more surprising now as everything Coconut has become the new health fad. Coconut oil, coconut water, coconut flour, coconut milk, freshly grated coconut. Of all these, my most favorite is the coconut milk. And with the ease of canned varieties available its a breeze to cook with it. Coconut milk is traditionally used in goan cuisines to make desserts. But i use it very often with vegetables, fish or chicken to make creamy curry paired with flavorful spicy paste. Here is one such recipe of coconut milk with thai yellow curry paste.

Ingredients :
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp Thai yellow curry paste
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp. sliced ginger
1 piece pumpkin cut into big chunks
1 large sweet potato cubed
15-20 French beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
400ml can reduced-fat coconut milk
chopped cilantro for garnish

Directions:
Heat the oil to medium in a sauté pan.
Stir in the onions and sliced ginger and sauté till onions turn soft
Then gently add and fry the curry paste  for 2-3 mins until fragrant.
Follow it up with the pumpkin, sweet potato and french bean and mix well to coat the paste.
Pour in the coconut milk. Bring everything to a simmer, and cook for about 10 mins until all the vegetables are tender.
Pumpkin may get little mushy. That adds to the sweetness and thickens the gravy.
Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with white rice.