Ghapama is probably one of the most festive dishes that Armenians have in their cuisine. It is a stuffed pumpkin, and to many of us it can remind a little bit of Halloween pumpkin. It is a healthy dish and is super unique. In no other cuisine you can find something like this. It is a pumpkin stuffed with rice, dried fruits, apples, honey, melted butter and spiced with the Armenians favorite cinnamon. You can briefly add this dish the list of dishes you make during holidays and during some festivals. Ghapama was served on festivals in Armenia and usually in New Year’s celebration party. In different regions ghapama was made in different ways. Armenia is a small county but each region has its own specialties. In some people add meat, different nuts and dried fruits in the stuffing while in the others they do not add meat.
To make this incredible dish you will have to have
1 middle size pumpkin
3 or 4 cups of rice
10 tablespoon of melted butter
8 tablespoon of honey (preferable from villagers)
500g. dried fruits (can be assortment of whatever you like)
1 or 2 medium apples
Some cinnamon (up to your taste)
Walnuts or other nuts as much as you like
Salt
Water (to cook the rice)
Preparation
You have to start with the rice, wash it and add so much water so that it can be cooked perfectly and bring it to boil. Until the rice is getting boiled and cooked you take the pumpkin, wash it, make it clean from the seeds and there is no need to cook it because it feel become soft and will not be able to handle the rice.
Then you take the butter and honey and slice the inner part of the pumpkin with these ingredients. Then you take a large plate, put all the things you have there, rice, dried fruits, chopped apples, nuts. Mix them together and stuff into the pumpkin. Cover the pumpkin with the part you cut from the bottom of it. Then place the pumpkin into the oven or baking pan. Keep it there under 180 degrees 45 minutes. After 45 minutes if the pumpkin is smooth and soft then it is ready, if it is hard still keep it into the oven, until it gets softer. Then the Ghapama is ready.
Ghapama is really a festive dish; it brings joy to your table and is extremely tasty. From the very first sight you may not like it, but if you try it you want more and more.
Nutrition info
The making process may seem hard, but in reality it is really easy, there is no huge difficulty. It contains lots of vitamins, such as vitamin D, due to the nuts; it has many healthy ingredients such as rice, dried fruits and the pumpkin. Thus, the nutrition level is high and the timing is about 1 hour, which also proves that it is not a difficult dish.
