Millet porridge with pumpkin is a traditional Ukrainian dish. In autumn, when pumpkin is in season, it is cooked for breakfast or served as a sweet dish.

The recipe was shared by Liuba Kruk, the author of the Smachno cooking website.

Raisins, barberries and a little ground ginger are added to the pumpkin and millet, and at the end the porridge is left to stew in the oven. It is served with honey.

What you need

  • pumpkin — 700 g;
  • millet — 1 cup (200 ml);
  • water — 400 ml;
  • raisins — 2 tbsp;
  • barberries — 2 tsp;
  • sugar — 2 tbsp;
  • salt — ½ tsp;
  • butter — 50 g;
  • ground ginger — ½ tsp, optional;
  • honey — to taste.

How to make it

1. Prepare the pumpkin. Peel and seed the pumpkin and cut it into 1–1.5 cm cubes. Put them in an ovenproof pan, cover with the water and bring to the boil over high heat.

2. Rinse the grains. Rinse the millet until the water runs clear, and rinse the raisins and barberries too.

3. Cook the porridge. When the water boils, add the salt, sugar, ginger, millet, raisins and barberries to the pumpkin. Stir lightly, bring back to the boil, cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes.

4. Finish in the oven. Spread pieces of butter evenly over the porridge, cover tightly with a lid and put it in an oven preheated to 150 °C for another 15 minutes.

5. Serve. Stir the porridge, spoon it into bowls and drizzle with honey.

The barberries give the porridge its tang, while the raisins and honey make it sweet. If you have no barberries, the porridge can be made without them.

As a reminder, earlier this week we made Italian gnocchi from pumpkin.

Nota bene

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