Pumpkin is undoubtedly everyone’s favorite fall fruit. While most people love to carve out scary faces on pumpkins during Halloween, there are some who use them as bowls with stuffings of a different kind during Thanksgiving – a national holiday in the US that is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November every year. Many stuff the pumpkins with soup, rice, meat or vegetables. Some also add molten chocolate lava in it as a filling and have it as dessert. Well, with all the scrumptious pies that will be on display this Thanksgiving, we present to you the perfect savory pumpkin stuffed with minced beef, vegetables, and rice.
How to Make Stuffed Pumpkin?
This is a recipe that involves scooping out an entire pumpkin, including the seeds, and keeping it in the oven to bake. It is a delicious and fancy Thanksgiving delicacy to serve your guests. It is quite a cumbersome recipe and needs to be made with a lot of precision as pumpkins come in unpredictable shapes and sizes and need to be baked to perfection – one that softens them enough to be pierced with a knife. Over baking will cause the pumpkins to break and under-baking will leave it raw.
Delicious Stuffed Pumpkin Recipe for Thanksgiving
Ingredients
- 5-6 pounds of a pumpkin
- 1.5 pound of minced/ground beef
- 0.75 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 small green pepper (chopped)
- 8 ounces of tomato sauce
- 1.5 cups cooked rice
- 2 eggs beaten
- 0.5 cup of finely chopped full cooked ham
- 1 garlic clove (minced)
- 0.5 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 0.5 tsp cider vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- To make stuffed pumpkin, start by first washing the pumpkin thoroughly. Then, draw a circle around the top stem and cut it and put it aside. Discard the seeds and loosen the fibers from within the pumpkin. You can use the pumpkin seeds in salads or have them as a healthy snack.
- Once done, keep the pumpkin in a large Dutch oven and fill it with boiling water to a depth of almost 6 inches. Now add 0.5 teaspoons of salt. Cover the pumpkin with the top you had set aside, and allow it to simmer for half an hour or till the time the pumpkin becomes almost tender. Ensure that it still holds shape. You would not want it to become too tender as it would easily break. Now, remove the water carefully from the pumpkin and pat it dry, whilst allowing it to cool.
- Meanwhile, cook the minced beef, green pepper, and onions, in a large skillet on medium heat. Continue to cook it until the meat no longer remains pink in color, and the vegetables tender. Once done, let it cool. Place the mixture, thus created, in a large bowl and to it add cooked rice, ham, tomato sauce, sautéd garlic, eggs, pepper, oregano, vinegar and the remaining 0.5 teaspoons of salt. Mix well.
- Now, in a shallow and sturdy baking pan, place the pumpkin and firmly pack the beef and rice mixture (that you mixed in a large bowl) into it. Cover the top and bake the pumpkin at 350° for 1 hour, leaving the baking pan uncovered. Once done, let it stand for not less than 10 minutes.
- Once done, ensure you remove the top and if you prefer to use a paper towel to let out excess moisture from the top of the meat. Now slice the pumpkin into 6-8 wedges and serve. Enjoy this delicious Thanksgiving treat with your loved ones!
Notes
Connect With Us
If you have tried this recipe, we would love your feedback in the comments section below. And while we can’t taste it, we would love to see how it turned out! You can connect with us on Facebook or Instagram and tag your picture with #organicfactsrecipes. [1] [2]
Do you wish to share your winning recipes with us? Please click here and fill in the details to get started.
