Awesome Vegetarian Stuffed Pumpkin
Stuffed Pumpkin
Just in time for thanksgiving I created a vegetarian stuffed pumpkin as a great alternative to a main turkey dish. Yes, it’s packed with so many goodies you won’t be disappointed. The great thing about this stuffed pumpkin is that you can serve it in so many ways. Like I mentioned before it can replace the turkey on the table as a vegetarian main dish. But you could also serve it as a side dish or even an appetizer. If you want to serve it as an appetizer you can get smaller pumpkins so that everyone can get their own individual small pumpkin. How cute is that.
Tip!
Buy smaller individual sized pumpkins to serve everyone their own stuffed pumpkin appetizer.
The Best of the Best
Okay it’s time to focus on the filling. This vegetarian stuffed pumpkin has everything you could ever want tucked neatly inside. The base that brings everything together is the wild rice. Combine that wild mushroom and chopped brussels sprouts and we are off to a good start. To keep it interesting there’s also chopped almond, apples and raisins. All providing a different texture and flavor. And to bring it all home we have parmesan. Don’t even get me started on the herbs and spices, thyme, nutmeg, cloves, cumin. It’s a quintessential autumn dish if you ask me. I know I just mentioned a lot of ingredients, and they all need to be chopped. It will take some time and effort. But it’s totally worth it. Put a nice playlist on and get to chopping.
Substitutions
I know I usually try to substitute all things rice with cauliflower rice. But in this case, I thought it wouldn’t be a great alternative. Know your body and what it can and can’t handle. I know for me I can manage a little bit of rice from time to time. So, I’m not fussy about it. And will make it 2-3 times a month. But if you already know you don’t function well on rice, just steer clear. There are other options out there. For a completely paleo option with similar ingredients you can try the honey roasted brussels sprouts.
Prep for Thanksgiving:
Vegetarian Stuffed Pumpkin
Ingredients
- 2 medium sized pumpkin
- 1 cup wild rice
- 1 big onion finely diced
- 1 apple peeled and diced
- 250 gram mushrooms diced
- 300 gram brussels sprouts
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup almonds chopped
- 1 cup parmesan grated
- 2 tsp fresh thyme
- 1 tsp cumin
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ black pepper
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Make the rice and finish chopping all the ingredients. Clean the brussels sprouts, remove the ends, chop in half and slice.
- Preheat oven to 170°C.
- In a large pot melt the butter and add the onions to cook for 4 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms and ¼ tsp salt to release the moisture. Cook down for another 4 minutes.
- Add the thyme, cumin, cloves and pepper and mix well.
- Add the brussels sprouts with another ¼ tsp salt, mix and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Mix the cooked rice, apple cider vinegar, raisins and apples with the mixture and cook for 2 minutes.
- Finish filling by adding parmesan, chopped almond and necessary amount of salt. Turn of the heat and set aside.
- To slice the top of the pumpkin off, place pumpkin on a flat surface hold your knife at a 45° angle and insert at 5 cm from the stem in the middle. You can’t cut in one motion with this so you will have to keep removing your knife and inserting back in at a 45° angle till the top comes off.
- Remove the top and scoop out the pumpkin seeds with a spoon.
- Pour 1 tbsp olive oil with some extra salt and black pepper and swirl it around in the pumpkin to get all the sides.
- Place the pumpkin on a lined baking sheet and fill it with the rice filling. Put the cap back on top and place in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
- Remove the cap after the hour and 10 minutes and let it go for another 20 minutes. It will be bubbling and you want to finish cooking all the liquid.
- Remove from the oven and set aside for a few minutes before cutting. Serve as a side or as an appetizer with additional filling