This simple butternut squash curry recipe with red cowpeas is a delicious, healthy vegetarian dish which you can easily make using a pressure cooker or instant pot.
If you do not have red cowpeas, you may try red beans or other kinds of beans as well, just adjust the cooking time for beans as needed.
If you have freshly cut butternut squash and cowpea & few spices, you are good to go!
And this butternut squash curry recipe which is a vegetarian recipe is perfect to be served with rice for a filling vegetarian lunch or dinner.
Butternut squashes are abundant during fall time and so this makes a yummy fall time vegetarian curry recipe.
You can serve this butternut squash curry with cowpeas along with rice for an easy, delicious and healthy lunch or dinner.
I have another vegan butternut squash curry with red kidney beans here which is a very delicious and easy one pot squash curry as well, which too goes great with rice for lunch or dinner.
Red cowpeas(which you can buy here) is a very nutrious and protein rich food, especially a great plant based protein source for vegetarians and you can find many red cowpea recipes in my blog here.
Adding Leafy Greens To The Butternut Squash Curry
It is easy to pair the red cowpea with vegetables like butternut squash, pumpkin and leafy greens like spinach or drumstick leaves which will make the dishes more healthy and yummy.
When I made this for the first time, I didn’t use any leafy green however when I made it again I tried spinach leaves as well as spring leaves mix and both turned delicious. So you can either add the greens or leave them out. However, adding the greens will make the curry even more delicious and healthy!
You can find here my recipe for drumstick leaves curry with red cowpeas which is made using fresh drumstick leaves, red cowpeas and spices.
I also have this banana flower curry with red cowpeas which is a simple, healthy and exotic vegetarian side dish from South India.
If you find it difficult to peel and cut the butternut squash, you can try baking or roasting the squash in oven by following a recipe for roasted butternut squash in oven and then you can peel and cut the roasted squash so easily. Just remove the seeds from the roasted squash and dice the squash for using in recipes.
You can find here my post on how to peel and cut butternut squash easily by roasting the squash.
In this recipe the squash is really getting blended with the gravy, so adding roasted squash will make the gravy even more delicious!
This butternut squash curry with cowpeas (served with rice in pictures) is something you can prepare so easily for lunch or dinner if you have diced butternut squash with you.
If it is difficult for you to cut the squash, you can also buy the butternut squash from the store which is already diced.
I recommend soaking the red cowpeas in water before cooking, for about half an hour to one hour, which will make the cowpeas more softer and easy to cook.
In this butternut squash curry, I cooked the squash much softer that they almost dissolved into the curry making the gravy so yummy.
If you prefer the squash to remain as pieces in the curry, you can adjust the recipe by cooking the red cowpeas first and then add the butternut squash and cook for few more minutes.
You may need to adjust the cooking time of cowpeas and butternut squash in that case to avoid overcooking of both the cowpeas and squash. Or you can simply follow this recipe and make this yummy butternut squash curry with cowpeas where the squash almost dissolve into the gravy to make a very yummy gravy!
So here is how you can make this butternut squash curry with cowpeas following this simple butternut squash curry recipe.
Simple Butternut Squash Curry Recipe With Red Cowpeas
Ingredients
- 2 cups butternut squash
peeled and diced - 1.5 cups dry red cowpeas
- 2 cups spinach leaves or spring leaves mix optional
- 3 cups water plus extra water for soaking the cowpeas
- ½ cup heavy cream or coconut milk
- salt as needed
for seasoning
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds or mustard seeds
- 1 tablespoon minced onions
Spices
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder optional
- 1 teaspoon garam masala powder optional
- ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds powder
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
Instructions
- Soak the cowpeas in enough water for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- After soaking, discard the water used for soaking and rinse the cowpeas in fresh water and transfer it to a large sized pressure cooker.
- Add the diced butternut squash and greens also to the pressure cooker.
- Add the water and also enough salt.
- Also add all the spices to the cooker - garlic powder, onion powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, coriander powder and cumin seeds powder. Mix everything well.
- Close the pressure cooker following the instructions in the manual and cook in medium heat for about 10 minutes after the steam comes or until 3 to 4 whistles.
- After the cooking is done, switch off the stove and wait for the pressure cooker to cool down.
- Once the cooker is cooled enough, open the cooker and see if the red cowpeas is cooked and soft.
- Stir everything well, and if you need more gravy, you may add a little more water and simmer the contents for another 1 to 2 minutes.
- To prepare the seasoning, heat the oil in a different pan and add the cumin seeds. When the cumin seeds are lightly fried, add the minced onions too and fry until the onions are lightly brown (the minced onions brown so quickly so make sure to watch or it can burn). If using mustard seeds instead of cumin seeds, you need to wait until the mustard seeds are spluttered to add the minced onions.
- Pour the prepared seasoning over the curry in pressure cooker, gently mix in.
- Finally add the heavy cream and stir well with the curry. Delicious butternut squash curry is ready to be served with rice!
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