Chicken mince cooked with soya granules and white pumpkin 

The whole idea of this dish is to reduce the amount of meat that one would normally feel compelled to eat. This dish takes the classic kheema recipe with a green masala and incorporates soya and white pumpkin, Pumpkin as a vegetable does not have a strong taste by itself and hence it willingly absorbs the flavours of the chicken mince. If you don’t want the children in the house ( both big and small) to know you have added pumpkin cut the vegetable into a nice brunoise. Brumoise ( tiny dice) is a culinary knife cut in which the food item is first julienned and then turned a quarter turn and diced again, producing cubes of about 3 mm or less on each side, or 1/8-inch dice. This will simply mask the pumpkin in with the the mince. The soya granules too do an excellent job of masquerading as mince. 

For green masala

Fresh corriander(kothari) – one cup
Green chillies – 10
Cardamom- 5
Cumin – one teaspoon
Cinnamon- 2 inch piece
Cloves – 5
Ginger – 1.5 inch piece
Garlic – 10 cloves
Vinegar – 2 table spoons
Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Some recipes also add one tea spoon of black pepper

Today I used quarter kilo of chicken mince, 75 grams of soya granules ( that’s a lot considering how light it is in weight) and half a kilo of white pumpkin. I sautéed one large finely chopped onion with four minced green chillies in a pan. I added two large finely chopped tomotoes (this gives it body as well as the tangy taste). Add a teaspoon of ginger and garlic paste. I then added four large tablespoons of the green masala and cooked this in the tomato and onion mixture for about one minute. Add salt to taste. Now add two cups of water and cook this gravy for about seven minutes on a high flame. The oil will begin to float on the surface and this is an indicator that the masala and the gravy have cooked.

Now add the mince, the soya granules that you soaked in water for ten minutes ( squeeze the excess water out ) and the white pumpkin. Cook for ten minutes and garnish with fresh coriander and if you like it spicy add two whole slit green chillies. You can squeeze a bit or lime just before serving.

You will notice that this dish has protein and roughage. The family won’t be able to tell between the chicken mince and the soya granules.

 – Fr Warner D’Souza who also goes by the name of PottyPadre