Roasted Pumpkin and Chickpea Spread
Roasting October pumpkin before blending concentrates its flavour and keeps this spread thick enough for crackers. Use a small cooking pumpkin rather than a carving pumpkin, which tends to have stringier flesh. The recipe makes about 450 g of spread, enough for a shared snack plate or several sandwiches.
What goes on the tray and in the bowl
- 300 g peeled, seeded cooking pumpkin, cut into 2 cm cubes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus a little to finish if desired
- 200 g cooked chickpeas, well drained
- 2 tablespoons tahini, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 small garlic clove, grated
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander and 1/4 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste
Roast until the corners colour
Heat the oven to 200 C fan (220 C conventional). Toss the pumpkin with the oil and spread it in a single layer on a rimmed tray. Roast for 22 to 30 minutes, turning halfway, until a fork slides easily through the largest cubes and a few edges have browned. If the cubes are soft but sitting in released liquid, give them another few minutes on the tray to dry out a little. Let the pumpkin cool until just warm before blending.
Blend and adjust in that order
Put the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, coriander, salt and pumpkin in a food processor. Pulse to chop the chickpeas, scrape down the bowl, then blend until the spread holds a soft ridge. Add water only if the blades cannot move the mixture, starting with 1 tablespoon and adding more a teaspoon at a time. Taste and adjust the salt or add another squeeze of lemon if the pumpkin tastes especially sweet.
If the spread comes out loose, blend in two spoonfuls of extra drained chickpeas rather than adding more tahini, which can make it taste bitter. If it is grainy, scrape the bowl and process again before thinning. Spoon onto a shallow plate, make a few grooves with the back of a spoon and add a small drizzle of olive oil. Serve with radishes, crackers or warm flatbread.
