Light Bites - Roasted Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Pilau

This week's recipe was my choice.  I chose the recipe because I was intrigued by a 'pilau' it sounded very fancy and I am trying to make more dishes with squash and sweet potato/yams.  What is a sweet potato to you?  To me it is white and yams are orange, it seems like these two vegetables both go by sweet potato and it confuses me.  For this recipe I chose yams sweet potato because of their color to go with the pumpkin. 

 I didn't actually look at the directions before choosing the recipe.  It is a lot of work!  I am so glad that my mother-in-law had Ally and Zoe at her house because I don't think I could have made this with them here.  When I sat down to actually read the recipe, I was very scared.  I had never used fresh pumpkin and cutting it up seemed really difficult.  It actually wasn't that bad but it was more difficult for me because I had to break up the steps between nursing Georgia.  The best part is that it does taste delicious and makes all that hard work worth it.  And I am not even a huge rice fan.  So if you have fresh pumpkin and and afternoon to cook, I highly recommend this recipe!

I did make a few changes like using yams and I added some sliced almonds for a bit of crunch.  I also used jasmine rice because I have a ton of it and no brown rice.

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Ingredients
adapted from Cooking Light

2 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled fresh pumpkin (about 12 ounces)
1 1/2 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled sweet potato (about 1 medium)
Cooking spray
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup diced onion (1 small)
1/3 cup diced celery (about 1 rib)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 cup brown rice
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
1/4 - 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°.

Arrange pumpkin and sweet potato in an even layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 35 minutes or until tender and just until vegetables begin to brown, stirring after 18 minutes. Remove from oven, and set aside.

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, and garlic to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until onion is tender. Add broth and remaining ingredients to onion mixture, stirring to combine; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 50 minutes or until rice is done and liquid is mostly absorbed. Remove from heat; discard bay leaf. Add pumpkin mixture; stir gently to combine.