This pumpkin curry (Parangi Kai Kootu) is a simple and flavorful South Indian dish that highlights the natural sweetness of pumpkin complemented by aromatic spices. Cooked with sambar powder, turmeric, and a freshly ground coconut paste, this dish offers a perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and savory flavors. A final tempering of mustard seeds, asafoetida, and curry leaves adds an extra layer of aroma and taste. Whether served as a side dish or mixed with hot rice, this curry is a comforting and wholesome addition to any meal.
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Parangi Kai (Yellow pumpkin) Kootu
4
servings10
minutes20
minutesExperience the delicious flavors of this Pumpkin Curry recipe. A perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and savory flavors in every bite!
Ingredients
1 big piece yellow pumpkin (tender pumpkin tastes good)
Turmeric Powder – a pinch
Sambar powder – 1 teaspoon
Coconut gratings – 1/4 cup
Red or Green Chilli – 1 or 2
Cumin (Jeeragam) – 1/2 teaspoon
Salt – 1 teaspoon or as per taste
Directions
- Peel the pumpkin and discard the seeds. Chop it into small, bite-sized pieces. Place these pieces in a pot and add turmeric powder, sambar powder, salt, and enough water to submerge the pieces. Cook over a medium flame until the pumpkin softens.
- Prepare a coarse paste by grinding coconut, chillies, and cumin seeds, then stir it into the cooked pumpkin. Allow the mixture to come to a brief boil.
- Finally, temper with mustard seeds, asafetida, chopped onion, and curry leaves.
- Enjoy this preparation as an accompaniment or mix it with steaming hot rice for a satisfying meal.
its really fantastic kootu.. yummy…
Thank you Packya.
feels like eating the kootu, thanks for the recipe mam. is this the sweet yellow pumpkin ? And one more favour I wanted to ask you mam, I hope you won’t mind. Can you please post me the recipe for paasi payaru kuzhambu ?
Hi Gayathri,
Thank you for your kind comments. Yes. It is the sweet yellow pumpkin. If you use the tender pumpkin (before riping), it tastes better. I will soon cook the Paasi payaru kuzhambu and post it.
thank u so much mam.
My son was asking for fruit salad and he is very picky in eating, can’t satisfy him easily. So I googled and couldn’t find any single good recipe. got frustrated and landed in your site and was just browsing the recipes and I landed on your fruit salad post . I made it today and My son liked it very much. Thanks a lot mam, looking forward to your recipe for kuzhambu, Take care.
I wonder if you could put numbers and times into the recipe.
One example is “…1 big piece yellow pumpkin …” How big would that be in terms of weight – 1 lb, 5 lbs?
Another example is “… season it with mustard, asafetida …” What do you have in mind when you say “season” — clearly, one does not introduce all the ingredients at one point and hope to God the dish stays edible at the end of a self-determined period of time?
Hi ads,
Thank you for taking time and writing your comment. In India, we get the pumpkin in pieces only. Normally one piece weigh from half pound to one pound. In Indian cooking people never weigh the vegetables and other ingredients while cooking. The measurement given in my recipes are for guidance purpose only and adding little more or less will not change the final dish. In fact we used to take all the ingredients by hand only and we call it “hand measure” and looking at the quantity of main dish, we add other spices like red chilli powder and masalas, which is called “eye measurement”. All these things are very well known to Indian people.
Seasoning – in most of the places I have given when to add ingredients after mustand. Normal seasoning is when the oil is slightly hot, we used to add mustard and once it starts pop up we add other dhals and fry till it turn slightly brown and then asafoetida powder and finally curry leaves and chopped onion and fry for a second. This fact also known to all those cooks regularly.
If you are new to Indian cooking, please let me know which dish you want to try. I will explain step by step.
parangi kayi=raw/unripe papaya,
sweet yellow pumpkin=kumbala kayi(in kannada), any way thanks for all recipes
Hi NK,
Thank you for your information. But in Tamil Yellow pumpkin is called “Parangi Kai” or “Manjal Pooshani”. Raw papaya is called in Tamil as “Pappali Kai”.
sorry for jumping to conclusion,and thank you for information
Hi, how do you grind the coconut and chili? I mean what kitchen tool do I use?
Thanks so much.
Hi Max,
We use Indian Mixie which has different sizes of Jar. For grinding smalla quantity like the above coconut and chilli, we use the small jar (normally it is called chutney jar). Or we can use the small electric blender also.
I am an ardent fan of yours. However I experiment other Cehfs recipes that you present .My latest craze is mor kulambhu bythe lateJacob from Tamilnadu.
Cannot find vegetable gravy recipe.
Why do Indian cooks add coconut gratings in abundance.
Over in Malaysia diabetes and heart attack rampant in middle age
Hi Dr Mariana,
Thank you for writing. Fresh coconut / coconut milk has healing properties. Moreover, here in South India we get plenty of fresh coconut. So naturally we add it for taste and also it acts as thickening agent in dishes. Reason for diabetes and heart attack cannot be only the coconut – may be due to other things also.
Excellent work.Very helpful to freshies like us. Thanks a lot.
Thank you for your kind words.
Hi I like all your kootu recepies so much. I have created my new blog http://cookingcrest.blogspot.in
Please do visit and let know your suggestions.