Our Favorite Stuffed Pumpkin Recipe

Hey guys!

What is your favorite meal of holiday season?

Hmmm it's difficult for me to name one.

But I like this one for sure: stuffed pumpkin.

My husband heard the recipe on the radio several years ago.

Since then, we have made it on Thanksgiving, Christmas day, etc.

If you like pumpkin and cheese, you'll love this. Must try :) (No pressure, haha.)

This is a vegetarian menu (not vegan, as it uses cheese and milk).

We have arranged the original recipe.

Ingredients:

Pumpkin pie pumpkin (pumpkin grown for cooking / not a carving pumpkin): 1

(Note: The amount of ingredients below varies depending on the size of the pumpkin. The below is the amount for a 2 - 3 lbs. pumpkin.)

Heavy cream, half and half, or whole milk: half cup

Shredded Swiss cheese: 1 package (or grated Gruyere cheese)

Pumpkin pie spice: a couple table spoons

Pepper: small amount

Plain stuffing (half a box), bread (7-inch piece of baguette sliced or other bread of choice), or half-cooked rice (3/4 cup before being cooked) (choose one of these)

Vegetable broth: 10 oz.

1. Cut the top of the pumpkin off. Keep it since you will use it later.

2. Scoop the inside of the pumpkin out: strings and seeds (you can throw these away).

3. Put some olive oil on the skin of the pumpkin.

4. Preheat the oven to 425F.

5. Put a sheet of parchment paper in a baking dish that will go into the oven. Put the pumpkin in it.

6. Mix cream/milk with pumpkin spice and pepper.

7. Put a layer of stuffing/bread/half-cooked rice inside of the pumpkin.

If you're going to use half-cooked rice, see below for how to prepare half-cooked rice (*).

8. Put some cream/milk inside of the pumpkin.

9. Put a layer of cheese inside of the pumpkin.

10. Repeat step 7 through 9 until the content reaches about an inch away from the top.

If you put too much stuff in the pumpkin, it will overflow when it's cooked.

11. Put the pumpkin into the oven and bake for 60 minutes.

12. Check if it is fully cooked by poking it with a skewer or a fork. If not, add more time.

*How to prepare half-cooked rice for stuffed pumpkin:

Since you will finish cooking the rice with vegetable broth and milk/cream, you will cook the rice only half way.

Cook the rice with half the amount of water specified in the directions on your rice package.

When the water evaporates, turn the heat off.

Since we used half the amount of water, the rice is half cooked at this point.

This time, we chose whole milk, Swiss cheese, and stuffing, but we have used half and half, Gruyere cheese, and brown rice.

All the combinations are tasty.

If you use rice, it turns out like a risotto!

This Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law and her husband had vacation plans on Thanksgiving, so we had a Thanksgiving meal a week before so that everyone could join.

We cooked a stuffed pumpkin, a whole turkey, butternut squash soup, and green bean casserole.

Everything turned out so great.

And then, on the real Thanksgiving Day, we cooked the stuffed pumpkin again!

We love this dish.

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!

Thanks for reading and have a great day :)