Pumpkin Dinner - Afghan Inspired

There's an Afghan restaurant near me that makes a delicious pumpkin dish. Since I have some ripe sugar pumpkins in the yard now I thought I'd try to make this dish myself.


Pumpkin:
1 medium pumpkin
oil
6 cloves of garlic
2 cups of water
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup of brown sugar (could use less)
6 oz can tomato paste
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
2 tablespoons freshly ground coriander seeds
1 teaspoon black pepper


peel the pumpkin and cut it into 1" cubes, put oil and garlic in a large deep frying pan and add pumpkin, let it cook until it starts to get soft, then add in all the other ingredients and mix together, cover and let simmer and cook together until pumpkin is fully cooked


Rice:
2 cups basmati
oil
1 chopped onion
5 cups of liquid (chicken stock and water)
carrots
rasins
cashews
masala
cumin
saffron


put some oil in a pot and cook the onion until they start to turn translucent, add the rice and liquid and all other ingredients to the pot and let it simmer until water is absorbed 


Yogurt Sauce:
1 small container plain yogurt
1-2 cloves fresh pressed garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mint leaves


mix all ingredients together
The fresh raw garlic will make a nice compliment to the sweetness of the pumpkin


I also sauteed some greens in garlic and had those with the pumpkin and rice.