Roasted Pumpkin with Apple-Cashew Stuffing
Roasted Pumpkin with Apple-Cashew Stuffing is beautiful, elegant, delicious, healthy - and perfect for Thanksgiving, too! A hollowed out pumpkin is stuffed with a mixture of cooked rice, quinoa, herbed stuffing, apples, cashews, onions, celery and spices. Easy to prepare and impressive to serve.
Servings: 8
Calories: 1407kcal
Ingredients
- 5 pounds pie pumpkin (a.k.a. sugar pumpkin or sugar pie pumpkin)
- olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 2 cups herbed stuffing mix
- 2 cups mixed cooked white rice brown rice and/or quinoa
- 2 Granny Smith apples cored and chopped
- 1 cup chopped roasted cashews
- 1 to 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
- 3/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- kosher salt to taste
- fresh ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a large rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut the top off the pumpkin by cutting out a 5 to 6-inch circle - at an angle - around the stem. Clean stringy pieces off inside of top and set aside.
- Remove seeds and stringy pulp from inside of pumpkin; I start using a wheel pizza cutter to scrape out the big hunks, then use a grapefruit spoon for the smaller stringy pieces. Oil inside and outside of pumpkin. Set aside.
- In a large skillet or sauté pan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add onions and celery and cook until soft, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in breadcrumbs, cooked rice, apples and nuts. Stir in 1 cup stock; add more as needed to moisten mixture (I usually only need 1 cup, unless preparing ahead – see note below). Season with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper.
- Spoon stuffing mixture into pumpkin and place on prepared cookie sheet. Put on pumpkin top and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until inside pumpkin flesh is tender and outside skin is nicely browned.
- When serving, scoop out some of the pumpkin with the dressing.
Notes
Make ahead: Pumpkin can be stuffed and cooked up to 24 hours in advance, covered and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature and reheat in a 325-degree oven. Put in more broth (1 1/2 to 2 cups).
Nutrition
Calories: 1407kcal | Carbohydrates: 267g | Protein: 27g | Fat: 49g | Saturated Fat: 22g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 1128mg | Potassium: 2232mg | Fiber: 46g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 949IU | Vitamin C: 70mg | Calcium: 2015mg | Iron: 59mg