excellent for ham leftovers. You probably already have the ingredients on hand to create this, and it is simple to prepare. If desired, consider including peas or other vegetables.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 40 |
| Yield: | 40 servings |
Ingredients
- 4 ¼ cups cubed fresh pumpkin
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut cream
- ⅜ cup brown sugar
- 8 young pandan leaves
Instructions
- Place the pumpkin into a steamer insert and set in a pot over one inch of water. Bring to a boil, cover and steam until soft, about 20 minutes. Transfer pumpkin to a blender and blend until smooth with no lumps.
- Combine the pumpkin, coconut cream, brown sugar, and pandan leaves in a pot over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is thick and smooth, about 1 hour; remove leaves and discard. Cool kaya before serving; refrigerate unused portion.
Reviews
Being overseas, I missed fresh kaya like the one my mother made. I came across this recipe and decided that this would be a healthier alternative to the traditional egg rich kaya. I used low cholesterol coconut cream, which made my kaya 98% cholesterol free. I also reduced the cooking time by more than half, as I felt that the cooked pumpkin was soft enough, and I used thicker coconut cream. That way, I hoped to keep most of the nutrients in the pumpkin. This is a great vegan alternative to the usual kaya and is much healthier without compromising taste. 5 starsll the way!
My Malaysian family was initially turned off by the pumpkin colour (they are used to seeing the green version), but overall gave this kaya a good rating. The pandan flavour came through and was very tasty. Pandan is also known as screwpine and apparently as “bay thoy leaf” and can often be found in the frozen foods section of your typical asian grocery.
A really good recipe, I would have given it 4.5 stars but it didn’t let me : Had to get rid of the last of the pumpkin I bought and this one did the trick! Few changes I made were to use coconut essence and skim evaporated milk instead to lower cholesterol and fat, I also replaced the sugar with splenda. This caused less “stiffening” as expected, I shall add a bit of sugar instead next time. Another thing I did was I boiled and mash the pumpkin instead of steam and blend. Bliss it tasted sinful. thanks, great idea by the way !