Japanese Pumpkin, Tofu and Tamari Rice

Serves 2-3, 4 as a side dish

This is a rich, delicious, rice and vegetable dish with some Japanese flavours. It is quite a nourishing dish, the Japanese pumpkin is delicious here but can happily be substituted with butternut squash. This is a great dish for vata and pitta but a little heavy in terms of the sweet taste for kapha but they can always serve small portions and supplement with vegetables. Vata can also serve smaller portions without the tofu and add some grilled salmon on the side. 

1 tbs. vegetable oil
3-4 tsp. Tamari (a wheat-free soya sauce) use dark soya sauce if you cannot find it
80g white or brown rice (I use basmati but any will do), washed
2 tsp. finely chopped ginger
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tbs. Japanese mirin
1 tbs. raw cane sugar
100g firm tofu, cut into small1cm cubes or a handful of cooked aduki beans
240g Japanese Kabocha pumpkin or butternut squash, skin left on and cut into ½” cubes
80g peas, shelled weight
1 tsp. black sesame seeds or 2 tsp. pumpkin seeds, raw or lightly roasted

Cook the rice according to packet instructions.

Heat the oil in a medium non-stick saucepan. Add the onion and cook until soft. Add the ginger, tamari, sugar, mirin and allow to bubble for a minute and add the pumpkin with 150ml water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until the pumpkin is just soft, around 15 minutes. Add the tofu and peas after 5 minutes (if using frozen peas add after 10m).

When done, add the cooked rice and stir all together gently, cover and leave on a very low heat for 4-5 minutes for the flavours to marry. Take off the cover and allow any excess water to cook off, leaving sweet, savoury and slightly sticky rice.

Serve sprinkled with the sesame seeds (vata) or pumpkin seeds (pitta).