A gorgeous way to have your pumpkin. Super healthy, and delicious with a tangy satay sauce.
A nod to one of the first vegetarian restaurants in my home town of Christchurch, New Zealand. The ‘Mainstreet cafe’ was way before its time in terms of serving ethical, delicious food and the pumpkin and kumara balls was one of the cafe’s signature dishes.
As an FYI, ‘Kumara’ is the name we give sweet potato in New Zealand, in fact calling them sweet potato seems very strange for me, but as I know there might be some of my international friends reading, I’ll try and refer to them by their International name.
I’ve had to recreate it from memory as the cafe is long closed now. I recall that they used to put cashews in the centre of the pumpkin and kumara balls, which was so luxurious at the time!
If you are a meat eater and stumped for a dish to make your vegetarian friends, then this is the dish to go for. It’s so simple to make but it tastes delicious and filling and perfect served with perfectly fluffy basmati rice.
I love the texture and sweetness of these pumpkin & sweet potato balls and when combined with the spicy peanut sauce, it really is a dream dish! You will notice that the peanuts/cashew nuts will go a little soft when cooked, this is intentional and adds to the texture of the dish.
These are just as good the next day too, if not better, so feel free to make them the night before you want to eat them and just re-heat!
Enjoy!
- Pumpkin and Kumara balls:
- 1 pumpkin, de-skinned and chopped into chunks
- 2 large sweet-potatoes/kumaras, peeled and chopped into chunks
- 1 cup raw, unsalted cashew nuts or peanuts
- 3 cloves of garlic, skins on
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup sesame seeds
- Simple Peanut Satay Sauce:
- See recipe
- Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
- Make simple peanut satay sauce as per recipe and store in fridge until required.
- Place the pumpkin and sweet potato chunks and garlic onto a greased baking tray and sprinkle with olive oil and salt. Bake in the oven until roasted (approximately 30 minutes).
- Remove the tray from the oven and allow the contents to cool.
- Squeeze the garlic, from it's skin, into a bowl and add the sweet potato and pumpkin and mash together.
- Add the cashews/peanuts to the pumpkin and sweet potato mix and shape into balls. Put in the fridge until your oven has re-heated.
- Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
- Take the pumpkin balls from the fridge and roll in sesame seeds.
- Place the pumpkin balls on a greased baking tray and bake until cooked through, approximately 30 minutes.
- Serve with simple peanut satay sauce drizzled across the balls and with perfectly steamed basmati rice.
Yummy Lisa< i am definitely going to try this
This recipe is amazing! I never would have thought to make pumpkin and sweet potato balls and coat them with peanut sauce, but now I don’t know how I ever lived without them!
Thanks Laurel, I’m so glad you like the recipe! I think it tastes amazing with peanut sauce 🙂 delicious!
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your site.Have an awsome day!
Great, just what I was looking for. One wee correction, the restaurant was called “Mainstreet” … good memories there. My mate was head chef was there for ages and been meaning to get back in touch just to get this recipe. Can’t wait to try it out tomorrow. Cheers!
Hi Todd,
thanks for pointing out the cafe name as auto correct had changed it and I hadn’t noticed. Loved that cafe! This is my interpretation of their Pumpkin and Kumara balls so won’t be exactly as you remember. But keen to know what you think so do let me know!. Cheers L
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