Maple Roasted Pumpkin With Chili And Feta

Maple roasted pumpkin with feta and chilli

Something magical happens to pumpkin when you roast it. It intensifies the sweetness and caramelises beautifully. I’d happily eat it plain. But here, we step it up a notch with a few simple additions that work so well with pumpkin. A dash of maple syrup for extra caramelisation. Plus a hit of fresh chilli, soft nutty crunchy of walnuts and creamy pops of salty feta…..you know this is going to be good! That’s dinner, right there. Or a mighty delicious side.

Ingredient you need

Here’s what you need to make this.

The roasting stuff

Pumpkin – Any eating pumpkin. I typically use Kent or Jap which are common varieties here in Australia. Do not use pumpkin intended for Halloween carving, it’s not very pleasant to eat.Alternatives – Butternut pumpkin (called butternut squash in the States) or sweet potato! Maple syrup – or honey. Dried chilli flakes – also called red pepper flakes. I use the regular type you get from ordinary grocery stores but you could absolutely use Asian or other types of chilli flakes. Just be mindful of spiciness! Red onion – substitute regular onion, eschalots (US: shallots) or the white part of green onions (I often have bunches in the fridge with the green parts unceremoniously hacked off for garnish purposes so am always looking for uses of the white part). Walnuts – Or other nuts of choice. Almonds and pecans come to mind first. Pinenuts, pepitas and other small nuts/seeds would also work but I’d toss them in partway through cooking so they don’t burn into tiny little black (bitter) pellets.

Finishes

Chilli – This is optional because it’s more for visual than spiciness, because we get enough spiciness from the dried chilli flakes. Large chillis, like the cayenne pepper pictured, aren’t very spicy. Good life rule to remember: the larger the chilli, the less spicy it is! Danish feta – This is the feta type that is a bit more creamy than Greek feta. Greek feta also works, though I do like the way Danish feta sort of smears as it semi-melts on contact with the hot pumpkin. If you are making to really impress, go premium by using goats cheese! Parsley – For pretty green finish.

How to make Maple Roasted Pumpkin with Chilli and Feta

This is a recipe that’s more about the finishes. The pumpkin is roasted with onion and walnuts, all tossed with maple syrup. Then once cooked, sprinkle with feta, red chilli and parsley. Then get stuck in! Alternatives – Butternut pumpkin (called butternut squash in the States) or sweet potato! If you are making to really impress, go premium by using goats cheese!

Or – jumble and pile

I know I said a single layer presentation looks nice and neat. But actually, for maximum flavour-melding-more-rustic presentation (aka Nagi style), do most of the sprinkling on the tray, reserving some for garnish. Then transfer into a serving bowl. Flavour jumbling will occur during transfer and piling. Also, the onion will get quite dark brown. If you notice at the tossing point that it’s getting a little too brown, just push/pile them all together or bury under pumpkin. This will protect them! Finish with reserved feta etc to pretty it up. Whichever way you go, single layer neatness or jumbled piled up rustic-ness, it still rates the same on the deliciousness scale. Which is, in case you hadn’t guessed, very, very high. Tell me if you serve this as a side or inhale it as a meal! – Nagi x PS In case you didn’t know I have a whole category of pumpkin side dishes as part of the vegetable and salad side dishes corner of this website! Mostly relatively low effort, like this one, with a scattering of show-offs for special occasions. PPS This is not the first time I’ve combined pumpkin. See also here and here.

Watch how to make it

Recipe update: This is an old recipe from 2015 that was in desperate need of spruced up photos, a recipe video tutorial and most importantly, recipe improvements! The same recipe, just tweaked to fix. 🙂