Pumpkins are a great addition to your winter table - being in season and budget friendly, they are super versatile as well. If you have leftovers from this side dish, these roasted pumpkins will make a very yummy soup, giving them a second life and giving you more options with less waste.
I’ve used miso a lot working in Asian fusion kitchens; it is also a very versatile product. We would use it in anything from sides, mains to desserts.
Miso caramel is one of my favourite ways to use the paste. I use this on my carrot cakes in the cafe and they have become very popular. Even the smallest amount of miso paste can give a dish great umami kick.
This dish can be used as a side, or a vegetarian main served with things like kale salad, rice or grains, or as a vegetarian roast. Super versatile and super cost-effective!
Miso roasted pumpkin
Serves 6-8 as a side
Ingredients
1 butternut
Small handful of fresh coriander for garnish
Miso glaze
2 Tbsp Shiro miso paste
3 garlic cloves
1 knob fresh ginger
1 shallot
Small handful of fresh coriander
¼ cup sesame oil
¼ cup olive oil
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Method
Start by preheating your oven to 190°C fan-forced bake.
Then start by prepping, peel your ginger with the side of small spoon, and peeling your garlic and shallot.
Leaving the skin on cut the ends of the pumpkins off, slicing them through the middle and removing the core with a spoon. Using a large kitchen knife cut them all into long pieces and put them aside.
Now you can make the glaze a couple of ways, the easier way being to put all of your glaze ingredients into your food processor and blitz it all up into a paste. If you do not have a processor or prefer not to do it this way, you can also add your wet ingredients into a bowl, and then finely chop your ginger, garlic, coriander and shallot. Adding that to your wet ingredients and mixing together to make a paste.
Once you have your glaze prepared, add your pumpkins to a large bowl and mix the glaze through until they are all fully covered in the mix. Grab a large roasting dish, lined with paper and set the pumpkins into the dish side by side, adding more sesame seeds to the top if you’d prefer.
Pop those in the middle shelf of your oven, check on them after 20 minutes, they should be starting to gain some nice brown colouring. At 30 minutes, they should be a nice dark brown roasted colour and they should smell absolutely gorgeous.
Take them out once you are happy with the colour and flavours you can smell. Add some fresh coriander as a garnish and to add the fresh flavour to your side dish.
