I’m in love! Bill found a recipe for stuffed pumpkin from a PBS radio show that looked good, so we tried it. It was somewhat decadent, basically a savory bread custard with bacon and cheese. It was good, but I was mostly impressed with how easy it was.
So I experimented with a healthier version of stuffing, which I actually like much better. I also tried it with my favorite squash/pumpkin: kabocha. It was love at first bite.
I made this for my bookgroup potluck with a 7# squash, and it was a big success. We always spend more time eating than we do talking about the book!
Kabocha is originally from Japan. We call it a winter squash, but it looks like a green pumpkin and is called pumpkin in other countries. I think it may be the squash used in Thai pumpkin curry (I’ve asked, but can’t entirely understand the answer.)
Kabocha is one of my favorite squashes. It has a firm flesh that has really good texture and flavor when roasted. You can also simply cut it in half and roast it.
The first time we made this recipe, I thought I was buying Sugar Pumpkin, which is used for making pumpkin pies. But I suspect that it was really a jack-o-lantern pumpkin. It was stringy and flavorless. What a disappointment. You can’t go wrong with kabocha and they are easy to find in the stores.
Any of the thicker skinned pumpkin-like squashes would work well for this. I have other types of squash from the farmers market that I’ll try this recipe with.
Stuffed Pumpkin
3 – 4 pound kabocha* squash or cooking pumpkin
2 cups cooked wild rice
½ cup onion, finely chopped
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
¼ to ½ cup feta cheese, crumbled
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
1 cup dinosaur kale, finely sliced
1 tsp smoked paprika or smoked chipotle
1 cup vegetable broth
Cook the wild rice ahead of time (1 cup dry with 3 cups water, makes about 3+ cups, and cooks for about 50 – 60 minutes; or use precooked from Trader Joes).
Set oven to 350 degrees, and put the rack in the lower third of the oven.
Cut a cap out of the top of the pumpkin, as if you were carving a jack-o-lantern. Do this carefully, kabocha squash is thick skinned and hard to cut. Surprisingly, I actually found it easier to cut it this way than in half! Remove the top and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and stringy parts. You want to get down to the smooth surface of the pumpkin “flesh.” Put the pumpkin on a cookie sheet or a baking dish.
Mix the rice with all the other ingredients except for the broth and spoon the mixture into the cavity of the pumpkin. Pour the broth in. You want enough liquid to keep the filling moist, but not so much that it is soupy.
Put the pumpkin lid back on and place in the oven. Cook for 1 ½ – 2 hours – until you can easily pierce the pumpkin with a knife. You want the pumpkin to be soft enough to eat.
Serving: I like to slice the pumpkin in half and gently open, retaining as much of the filling as possible. Then you can slice the half into as many portions as you wish. We eat this as a main dish with a salad.
Variations:
The original recipe called for bread crumbs, bacon or sausage, cream and Swiss cheese. It was good, but l like my healthier version even better. I’ve sprinkled it with toasted chopped pecans (instead of adding it to the filling). I think it would also be good with blue cheese instead of feta. You could leave out the kale, it adds more color than flavor.
Using larger or smaller squashes:
I made this with a 7 pound kabocha squash and increased the filling by 50%. In other words, I used 3 cups of wild rice, ¾ cup onion, 3 cups mushrooms, etc. It worked out great. You could also use small squash, like dumpling squash, for individual servings.
*Kabocha Squash is sometimes called Japanese Pumpkin, especially in other countries. It looks like a green pumpkin, but the insides are bright orange. This is one of my favorites. It is harder than some to cut, but well worth the effort: it has a wonder texture and flavor.
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Eat well
This sounds so good. I happen to have a 10 pound hubbard squash sitting right here but suspect that it’s too big to stuff and put anywhere. Maybe I need to cut it in half.
I also love kabocha squash and see this dish in my future.
I think that you are right about it being the “pumpkin” in Thai curry.
I am now too hungry to talk about food anymore.
I love hubbard squash too. Do you have any tips for cutting the really big ones?