Libyan Spicy Pumpkin Dip
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
This spicy Sephardi dip from a Libyan-Jewish restaurant in Jaffa can be stored for at least a week in the refrigerator. Serve it with chunks of bread or raw vegetables to dip into it.
Related
Serves 6–8
3–4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
5–8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 ½ pounds pumpkin, peeled and diced
1–2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
¼–½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼–½ teaspoon curry powder
3 ounces chopped canned tomatoes or diced fresh tomatoes and 1–2 tablespoons tomato purée (paste)
½ –1 red jalapeño or serrano chilli, chopped, or cayenne pepper, to taste
Pinch of sugar, if necessary
Juice of 1⁄2 lemon, or to taste
Salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, to garnish
1) Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and half the garlic and fry until softened. Add the pumpkin, then cover and cook for about 10 minutes, or until half-tender.
2) Add the spices to the pan and cook for 1–2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, chilli, sugar and salt and cook over a medium-high heat until the liquid has evaporated.
3) When the pumpkin is tender, mash to a coarse purée. Add the remaining garlic and taste for seasoning, then stir in the lemon juice to taste. Serve at room temperature, sprinkled with the chopped fresh coriander.
Recipe reprinted with permission from “Jewish Festival Food: Eating for Special Occasions” (Lorenz Books) by Marlena Spieler.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
