Sunday, October 5, 2014

Wild Rice Stuffed Pumpkin

1 lb wild rice blend
2 lb fresh spinach, stemmed
1/4 cup, plus 2 Tbs olive oil, divided
6 cups sliced button mushrooms
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup diced celery
9 cloves garlic, minced, divided
3 Tbs chopped fresh sage, divided
4 tsp chopped fresh thyme, divided
2 cups frozen corn
15oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped toasted pecans
1 6-8 lb cooking pumpkin

1) Prepare wild rice blend according to package directions. Transfer to bowl.
2) Bring 1/2 cup water to a boil in bottom of skillet. Add spinach, and cook 4 minutes, or until wilted. Drain, and cool, then squeeze dry, chop, and add to rice in bowl.
3) Heat 2 Tbs oil in skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms, onion, celery, 4 tsp garlic, 1 Tbs sage, and 2 tsp thyme; saute 10 minutes, or until all liquid has evaporated. Stir in corn and kidney beans, and saute 3 minutes. Stir mushroom mixture into rice mixture. Fold in pecans, and season with salt and pepper, if desired.
4) Preheat oven to 350F. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. Cut top from pumpkin, and scoop out seeds and pulp.
5) Combine remaining 1/4 cup oil, remaining 5 tsp garlic, 2 Tbs sage and 2 tsp thyme in bowl. Brush oil mixture over inside of pumpkin. Fill pumpkin with rice mixture, cover with top, and bake 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until pumpkin is tender when side is pierced with knife tip. Uncover, and bake 10 to 20 minutes more.

Review: This serves 12. I don't need that much food. I've been dying to make this and was able to scale it down quite a bit to serve in a small pumpkin. It's still a lot of food for just me - 4 large servings! The rice mixture had a very savory flavor that was wonderful. The pumpkin added a sweetness that rounded out the dish. It was messy to serve, though. I cut wedges of the pumpkin, which means everything spills out onto the baking sheet. I wasn't sure how to eat it without eating the skin, but I quickly noticed the skin peels right off. After taking the picture, I peeled the skins off and lightly chopped up the pumpkin for the leftover containers. Mmmmm.

Before roasting:
 After roasting:

 Sliced and served:

Adapted from:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/wild-rice-stuffed-pumpkin/

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