Cooking time

Ingredients

For 8 Person(s)

Base

  • 100 g sunflower oil
  • 200 g gram flour (also known as chickpea flour)
  • 200 g caster sugar

Pumpkin layer

  • 1 small squash or pumpkin
  • 450 g tofu
  • 1 1/2 tbsp gelatin powder (or 1 ½ tablespoons agar agar if vegan)
  • 1 cup icing sugar
  • 1/4 tsp green cardamom, ground
  • A handful of flaked almonds, crushed
  • A handful of unsalted pistachios, crushed

Directions

  1. Start by making the base. Over a medium to low heat, put the sunflower oil in a saucepan and allow to gently heat for 2 – 3 minutes.
  2. Once the oil is warm, add the gram flour into the pan, and stir so that all of the oil and flour are incorporated.
  3. Cook the flour and oil mixture slowly over the course of 10 – 12 minutes, without letting the mixture brown. During this cooking time, make sure that you keep the mixture moving constantly in the pan. You will notice that as it cook, the texture will start out resembling crumble topping, and it will become glossy, resembling peanut butter, by the time it’s cooked.
  4. After the 12 minutes, take the pan off the heat and add in the sugar, making sure it’s completely incorporated. Taste the mixture and if there’s no bitter taste, it is ready to be pressed into a round cake tin. If there is a slightly bitter after taste, put the pan back onto a low heat setting and cook for a further 5 minutes.
  5. Line the cake tin with a double layer of cling film, then, using the back of a metal spoon, press the base mixture into a cake tin. Put it into the fridge to firm up whilst you prepare the pumpkin layer.
  6. Peel the pumpkin/squash and cut it into bitesize pieces. Steam the pieces of pumpkin/squash till it’s completely soft.
  7. Once the pumpkin is cooked, put it into a food processor with the tofu, and blend till you have a smooth mixture. Add in the gelatin powder (or agar agar), icing sugar and green cardamom, and blitz again in the food processor for a minute (or until well blended).
  8. Pour the pumpkin mixture on top of the base layer, and put into the fridge to set overnight.
  9. Just before serving, sprinkle over the crushed flaked almonds and pistachios.

Recipe notes

Tip: tofu is a great alternative to cream cheese for cheesecakes or any sweet recipes that require cream cheese. It will take on the flavour of whatever else you have in the recipe, it just take a few hours for it to absorb all of the flavours. So make sure that when using tofu in place of cream cheese, that you make the dish the day before you need it so that the flavours can develop overnight.

Similar recipes
Apple Cake with Chickpea Puree
Apple Cake with Chickpea Puree
Aubergine Mango Salad with Spicy Roasted Chickpeas
Aubergine Mango Salad with Spicy Roasted Chickpeas
Baked Cod with Chickpeas
Baked Cod with Chickpeas

Top