Newsletter # 49 – Baked stuffed butternut pumpkin

A few weeks into autumn and our thoughts turn to heartier foods such as soups and stews and Easter where seafood and chocolate dominate, but it is still warm and we need some recipes to bridge that gap. Today’s recipe will give you a delicious standalone main course and a base ingredient for a soup which you can freeze for winter.

I prepared this recipe for 4 people which gave me a substantial amount of pumpkin leftover to make soup with.

Baked stuffed butternut pumpkin

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Servings: 1 serving

Course: Main Course

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 kg whole butternut pumpkin washed, dried and unpeeled
• olive oil
• seasoning
• 2 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
• 1 small potato peeled, 4mm dice
• 30 g shelled walnuts roughly chopped
• ¼ cup brown rice
• ½ cup vegetable stock
• 1 small brown onion peeled, 4 mm dice
• ⅛ tsp dried rosemary
• ⅛ tsp cinnamon
• 125 g can mixed beans drained and rinsed
• 20 g Greek feta cheese crumbled
• 10 g baby spinach blanched and chopped

Method

 

1. Assemble your ingredients
   
2. Pre-heat your oven to 180c
3. Inspect the pumpkin and cut across about 80mm from the seed end of the pumpkin – not the stalk end. Put the stalk end aside
   
4. Gently trim the end to ensure the pumpkin sits flat.
5. With a spoon scoop out the pumpkin seeds and any loose stringy bits of pumpkin
   
6. Rub the pumpkin with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and garlic
   
7. Bake the pumpkin in the oven for about 45 minutes, until just tender
8. Meanwhile in a small saucepan slow simmer the brown rice and stock with the lid on for 30 minutes followed by a further 15minutes to evaporate any excess liquid
   
9. In a small baking dish, dry roast the walnuts for 4-5 minutes
   
10. In the oven in a separate baking dish cook the potato and onion with a little olive oil for 20minutes
    
11. With all the ingredients now prepared you can make the filling
12. In a mixing bowl add the rice, potato, onion, spices, beans, feta and spinach and mix well
    
13. Spoon this mix into the empty pumpkin base – use it all
14. Place the pumpkin back on the baking dish and cover with a little alfoil
15. Return the pumpkin to the oven and bake for 30 – 40 minutes
    
16. Serve.

Notes

I served the pumpkin with green tomato relish and a drizzle of honey