Pumpkin, coconut milk and peanut butter curry served over quinoa – delicious Asian-inspired recipe.
This recipe combines a lot of my favorite flavors together: Thai spices + pumpkin + peanut butter + black beans + some honey + just a little bit of coconut milk (only 1/4 cup for a whole recipe). The resulting dish is a hearty, Asian-inspired curry with just the right amount of heat, spice, sweetness and creaminess.
Peanut butter does wonders in this recipe adding silky creaminess and an amazing flavor. Use creamy variety, such as JiF brand of peanut butter. This curry is really great when served over quinoa.
Not only is this coconut peanut curry delicious, it is also quite healthy, full of nutrients and veggies. It’s vegetarian, low-calorie, low-fat, and gluten-free. And, it looks pretty, too (hopefully, the photos show it – I was in a big hurry, so I just took a few simple photos). What’s not to like?
Recipe notes
- This recipes makes 4 moderate size servings. You can easily double the recipe if you want bigger portions or if serving more than 4 people.
- Various brands of red curry paste have different degrees of spiciness. Be careful not to add too much of red curry paste if it is of a spicier variety. Note that Thai Kitchen brand makes red curry paste of moderate spiciness, their paste is not overly spicy.
- Serve over quinoa. Cook 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups of water and 1/4 teaspoon salt. This will make about 3 cups of cooked quinoa.
Pumpkin, coconut milk, peanut butter curry with black beans. It's vegetarian, low-calorie, low-fat, and gluten-free recipe. Perfect if served with quinoa
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion , chopped
- 4 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 cup pumpkin puree , from the can or homemade
- 1 cup tomatoes , from the can
- 1 cup vegetable stock or water
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste (use less or more of the paste, depending on how spicy it is, and then add more, to taste)
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 15 oz black beans from the can, rinsed and drained
- salt and pepper
- In a large pot or skillet, cook chopped onion and minced garlic in olive oil for about 5 minutes on medium heat until soft.
Add pumpkin, canned tomatoes (chop them up into smaller chunks), vegetable stock (or water), coconut milk, 1 tablespoon of red curry paste, 3 tablespoons of honey, and creamy peanut butter. Stir everything well, and season with salt and pepper.
Add black beans and stir. Taste your curry, season with more salt if needed. Adding enough salt (not too little) to the curry is very important to its flavor.
Add more honey if desired. Add another tablespoon of red curry paste, if desired. Add more peanut butter, if desired.
- Bring to boil, make sure to stir all ingredients well together to combine flavors and spices. Reduce to simmer and cook for 15 minutes on very low simmer.
- Serve with quinoa, garnished with chopped green onion.
Just made this for dinner tonight. It is absolutely delicious! Things I never would have thought to put together create such a depth of flavor…this will become a regular at our house for sure. Thanks for sharing!
Just made this for dinner. I was a little heavy with the honey but balanced that with some Siracha. This is definitely a keeper! Thanks for sharing!
This looks absolutely scrumptious! Although I often use pumpkin in my curries, and I use peanut butter in my stews, I never thought to combine them all. Can hardly wait to try this one. Thank you for sharing.
I would have never thought to combine these flavors, but it sounds delicious! So creative. I wish I had this for lunch today. 🙂
This dish has a lot of my favorite flavors too! Love pumpkin paired with some spice and quinoa is always a great choice for some extra protein!
Oh, my! Somehow, I missed getting my buns over here to comment. (Please forgive me.) Wow…I am totally loving this flavor combination. You are one wicked cook, girl! I love that there is coconut milk in there and that this curry is served over quinoa so full of protein. Thanks for sharing. Pinning (of course)!
We made this last night and it was different! It grew on us both. The combo of peanut butter with pumpkins threw us for a loop.
One note: I drastically reduced the amount of honey. After 2 TBSP I tasted it and the honey came through loud and clear. If I added 4 more it would’ve been too much for our taste. You sure that’s 6 TBSP and not 6 teaspoons?
Looking forward to trying some of your other recipes!
Hi Stacey! Thank you for your sweet comment – so glad you liked this curry! What’s funny is that originally I had posted 3 tablespoons of honey. Then, just this week, I made this curry and went crazy on honey – the curry was not sweet enough to me so I upped the amount of honey needed and corrected the recipe. Well, now based on your feedback I just corrected the recipe back and updated the amount of honey to “from 3 to 6 tablespoons”.
What a wonderful combination!
I can smell the aroma of this dish from here dear Julia! Perfect for a cold winter day-)
Thank you!