With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, I have started to think of things I can make for holiday parties. While we are subjected to a mass number of tasty appetizers, entrees and desserts, what is often missing at these parties is anything with nutrient value, resulting in a larger waistline come the new year. As holiday weight gain can be significant for many people, a lot of us strive to at least maintain their weight through the holiday season. With all of this in mind, I was asked to make a vegetable dish for Thanksgiving and it got me thinking, how can I spruce up boring vegetables while not adding a bunch of ingredients to them to make them unhealthy? I started thinking about acorn squash and what I could do with it so that everyone got their own individual acorn squash and then my idea grew to an entire pumpkin that would not only provide a nutrient filled side dish, but also some aesthetic appeal to the dinner table. This recipe can be used for both a whole roasted pumpkin or to provide each person with the special touch of an individual acorn squash. Both recipes are provided here.
What you will need:
1 Medium size pumpkin (you can get a larger one if you like, however the amount of vegetables needed to fill it and cooking time with change)
and/or
acorn squash (the amount of vegetables here will probably fill 5-6 acorn squash)
1-2 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Medium sweet onion chopped
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 Zucchini squash chopped
1 Eggplant chopped
1 Red pepper chopped
1 Bag baby spinach
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. cumin
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Let’s start by preparing the pumpkin. Just like when you are carving a pumpkin, cut off the top of the pumpkin and clean the inside of the pumpkin out by removing all the stringy innards and seeds. Discard the stringy mess and save the seeds to roast later (see my roasted pumpkin seed recipe). Coat the inside of the pumpkin with olive oil and generously season with salt and pepper. The pumpkin is now ready to go!
If you are making acorn squash as well, prepare the acorn squash now too. Cut acorn squash in half and remove all the seeds and strings from the center just like with the pumpkin. Coat the inside of the acorn squash with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. The acorn squash is now all set.
Next let’s prepare the vegetables. After chopping up all the vegetables, in a large saucepan, sauté onions, zucchini, eggplant, red pepper and minced garlic in the olive oil. Add dried thyme, cumin, salt and pepper. Sauté until onions have turned golden and vegetables have softened. Add spinach in and cook only about a minute more.
Spoon the vegetables into prepared pumpkin making sure to pack the pumpkin very tightly. Place the pumpkin top back on and wrap the pumpkin completely with foil.
For the acorn squash, fill the center of each half of the squash until full.
Place the pumpkin and acorn squash on a baking sheet in the oven at 400 degrees F. The pumpkin will take about 1.5 hours or until pumpkin is cooked through and tender when a knife or fork is inserted. The acorn squash will take about 1 hour or until acorn squash is tender when a fork is inserted.
Time to decorate the table with the pumpkin as the center piece and the acorn squash at eat table setting and watch everyone marvel at not only the taste, but also the aesthetic appeal and how you turned boring vegetables into the talk of the party!
Ingredients:
1 Medium size pumpkin
and/or
acorn squash (the amount of vegetables here will probably fill 5-6 acorn squash)
1-2 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Medium sweet onion chopped
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 Zucchini squash chopped
1 Eggplant chopped
1 Red pepper chopped
1 Bag baby spinach
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. cumin
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- To prepare the pumpkin:
- Cut off the top of the pumpkin as you would if making a Jack O Lantern
- Clean out the inside of the pumpkin again as you would when making a Jack O Lantern. To do this, remove all the stringy innards of the pumpkin including the pumpkin seeds.
- Discard the stringy mess and save the seeds to roast later.
- Coat the inside of the pumpkin with olive oil and generously season with salt and pepper.
- Set prepared pumpkin aside.
- To prepare the vegetables:
- In a large saucepan, sauté onions, zucchini, eggplant, red pepper and minced garlic in olive oil
- Add dried thyme, cumin, salt and pepper
- Sauté until onions have turned golden and vegetables have softened.
- Add spinach in and cook only about a minute more.
- Spoon vegetables into prepared pumpkin making sure to pack the pumpkin very tightly.
- Place the pumpkin top back on and wrap the pumpkin completely with foil.
- Place on a baking sheet in the oven for about 1.5 hours or until pumpkin is cooked through and tender when a knife or fork is inserted.
Alternatively, you can stuff acorn squash instead.
- To prepare the acorn squash;
- Cut acorn squash in half and remove all the seeds and strings from the center.
- Coat the inside of the acorn squash with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Place prepared vegetables in the center of each acorn squash half until full.
- Place on a backing sheet in the oven at 400 degrees F and cook for about 1 hour or until acorn squash is tender when a fork is inserted.
