Dinner in a Pumpkin

[QSis]

I love pumpkins, and every year I make at least one new pumpkin dish, either sweet or savory.

This year, I made a recipe that GB posted. Very easy, and a fun presentation, but kind of bland, as written.

My pumpkin was good-sized, so I used two pounds of ground beef, added 4 cloves of minced garlic (could have used more), plus garlic powder, and cooked it for TWO and a half hours, until the pumpkin was fully tender and the stuffing piping hot.

This really is a great presentation, and I would experiment with different filling ingredients and seasonings.

Maybe lamb stew.

Lee

DINNER IN A PUMPKIN (GB)

Medium sized pumpkin (about 4 pounds)
1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 4-ounce can mushrooms
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups cooked rice

Using a sharp knife, cut lid from pumpkin and scoop out
pumpkin seeds and excess membrane with a scraping tool.
In a large skillet, combine ground beef, chopped green
pepper, chopped celery, and chopped onion and cook over
medium heat until ground beef is browned. Add next seven
ingredients to skillet. Mix well and place mixture into
pumpkin cavity. Place lid on pumpkin. Place pumpkin on a
foil-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 1-1/2
hours.

Uncooked pumpkin


By QSis


Cooked pumpkin


By QSis

Plated pumpkin dinner


By QSis

[Barbara L]

Lamb stew would probably be good. I know beef stew is really good served in a pumpkin, and it is really pretty with the different colors.

Barbara

[kadesma]

I love pumpkin of all kinds and this looks outstanding..I love the idea of rice in there, will play around with this myself..Thanks

kadesma

[Uncle Bob]

I wonder if one could cook dressing/stuffing in one?... Seriously! I think so!!

If so, I'm sure Miss Alix would want to know about it. Somebody let her know!!!

[ChefJune]

In her book, "Cookwise," Shirley Corriher has a recipe for a fabulous vegetarian bean melange cooked in a pumpkin.

I've been known to make it for Thanksgiving when there are vegetarians coming to dinner.

[kadesma]

Originally Posted by ChefJune

In her book, "Cookwise," Shirley Corriher has a recipe for a fabulous vegetarian bean melange cooked in a pumpkin.

I've been known to make it for Thanksgiving when there are vegetarians coming to dinner.

Because of the med problems I have now I need to eat a lot of protien, while it sounds tempting, steak, fish, pork, chciken, already I want to moo, oink and cluck..This recipe sounds so tempting will be looking to see if I can find it. Thank you.
kadesma

[ChefJune]

Originally Posted by kadesma

Because of the med problems I have now I need to eat a lot of protien, while it sounds tempting, steak, fish, pork, chciken, already I want to moo, oink and cluck..This recipe sounds so tempting will be looking to see if I can find it. Thank you.
kadesma

and if you can't find it, I can type it up and email it to you...

[bknox]

That's Awsome! Thanks for the pictures!

I usually dice up pumkin and cook it similar to sweet potaotes only with a touch of pumpkin spice, but that is very cool.

[miniman]

Weel, I bit the bullet and had a go at this, using a 21lb pumpkin from my allotment. I doubled the filling ingrdienrts (approx) and used red & green peppers. I also adjusted the soy sauce, pepper and salt. I used it as a centerpiece for a buffet table - we had a defrosting party for our house being fully restored following the fire.

It was great and impressive, only thing is it sheds liquid liek crazy, we had to drain the dish several times and it still soaked the tablecloth.

[QSis]

21 pounds??? Whoa!

I didn't have a leaking problem, miniman. Your pumpkin must have been a LOT fresher and juicer than mine was!

Mine came from New Mexico, heaven knows how long ago it was picked!

Anyway, I bet your guests were impressed with that stuffed monster!

Lee