one of my favorite things to cook in the fall! meal-in-a-pumpkin
be forewarned, after halloween all the grocery stores throw away their pumpkins and the pumpkin patches are basically cleaned out by then. so plan accordingly.
you want a pumpkin for eating, not carving. sometimes the pumpkins are labeled as such.
you want a pumpkin thats 'medium sized'. what does that mean? god only knows.
basically it needs to be small enough to fit in your oven,
but big enough to get a large skillet of meat/veggies in it.
heres what i love about this recipe: there isnt really one!
you can make it however youd like with whatever veggies/meat* you like!
if you google it, you will find lots of recipes that are simple and kinda boring.
heres the basic 'how to':
1 medium pumpkin
1.25-1.5 lbs ground meat
veggies - water chestnuts
soy sauce
olive oil
brwn sugar/honey
seasonings/spices
yogurt or broth
rice/quinoa
1. cut a hole in the top of the pumpkin. this becomes your lid. best to cut it an an angle \ / cuz as the squash bakes it will shrink and your lid might fall right into the middle if you have cut it straight | | .
scoop out the innards. do what you wish with the seeds.
place the pumpkin in a pot or wide baking dish, cuz its really hard to pull it out of the oven when its done and soft.
2. brown meat of choice in a large skillet. i like turkey. add seasonings of choice.
today i used a garam masala blend i bought in india. its sweet with a hint of savory.
3. add your veggies to the meat. today i used: yellow beets, turnip, kalamata olives, garlic, asparagus, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and spinach.
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| grnd turkey with turnip, bamboo, yellow beets, garlic |
i was excited to be able to use some of my thrive foods! +
i decided against the carrots, since i was using turnips. and i decided to use my beet greens in a different dish.
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| my thrive foods - chopped spinach, mushrooms and cut asparagus |
other veggie suggestions: onions, celery, carrots, bell peppers, red beets, rutabaga, black olives, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, jalapeno. GET CREATIVE!
the water chestnuts add a nice crunch. i decided plenty of my veggies were al dante enough to not warrant adding the water chestnuts today.
if you start your onions and garlic in butter before adding the meat, they will be that much more delish.
dont forget to add addtl seasonings/spices to your skillet now that the veggies are in there too. i added crushed red pepper flakes to add some pazazz to my sweeter garam masala spices.
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| gorgeous! |
4. add olive oil and soy sauce. how ever many splashes you want to. compliment the seasonings/spices you put in the skillet. go light with the soy if you already added a lot of salt.
add the sweet - the brown sugar/honey. again to compliment your flavors of veggies.
5. the original recipes for this concoction of pumpkin delight calls for a can of campbells cream of something soup. BARF right!?
so i usually use chicken or beef broth.
today i decided to try using my homemade almond milk yogurt.
FANTASTIC! it added just enough creamy to my meat/veggies but didn't leave a sloshy soupy mess in its wake.
i used several heaping scoops of yogurt.
6. scoop everything from the skillet into your cleaned out pumpkin. place lid on top and place in the oven on the 2nd to last rack.
7. bake at 350'F for about an hour, until the squash forks easily. check it at about 45 mins. today mine cooked for 1 hr 10 mins.
8. scoop out the inside of the pumpkin being sure to scoop out the cooked squash with the rest of the yumminess.
note - even though your meat/veggie mix doesnt fill the pumpkin, it will yield A LOT of food!
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| this particular pumpkin flesh resembles spaghetti squash and has a nice al dante texture |
9. serve on rice or quinoa. add any addtl seasonings if needed.
*leave out the meat for a vegetarian meal.
+interested in the thrive products, learning more about how the system works and why you would benefit greatly? contact Natalie at tatymsmammy at gmail dot com
