A Seasonal and Savory Stuffed Pumpkin
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This showstopping Savory Stuffed Pumpkin will be the centerpiece on the table every time you serve it up. Everyone in our house loves this beautiful stuffed winter squash.
A sweet sugar pie pumpkin filled with bread cubes, sausage meat, apples, cranberries, and herbs couldn’t be more seasonally appropriate for fall if it tried!
Have you ever wanted to make a stuffed baked pumpkin? Now is your chance! The sugar pie pumpkins start hitting stores in late September and they’re available until late November, so now is the time.
Why Stuff a pumpkin?
You might choose to make a stuffed pumpkin if you’re doing some sort of alternative to traditional Thanksgiving fare or Christmas Dinner. It’s a lovely alternative to a huge stuffed turkey and the price is cheaper by far! Or try these Colombian Tamales if you really want to try something different!!
If you’re looking to opt out of traditional Thanksgiving foods try my Air Fryer Turkey Breast. You get the flavor of turkey but not all the leftovers!
Maybe make this EASY but Elegant Apple Tart, the perfect no-pumpkin
What do I need to make this Stuffed Pumpkin?
- a sugar pie pumpkin
- dried bread cubes can be day-old bread, toasted bread cubes, OR stuffing mix
- onion
- celery
- mild Italian sausage OR use your favorite fresh sausage
- apples, galas, or Honeycrisp work well here!
- dried cranberries
- herbs
- garlic
- chicken broth
- eggs
Are they hard to make?
You might think stuffed pumpkins look hard to make BUT they are not hard to make at all. They only look intimidating because they’re so beautiful. The only thing you should watch out for is OVER COOKING it, which can make it collapse.
Because the filling is precooked and you’re stuffing it into a pumpkin, not a turkey cavity there is no danger of this stuffing not being cooked through and people getting sick.
The sausage meat is thoroughly cooked before ever being added to the pumpkin, so as long as the pumpkin is cooked through you’re ready to serve it up.
How do I serve this dish?
You should bake this stuffed pumpkin in a pan you don’t mind sending to the table and serving from. The act of trying to lift it to a serving platter can utterly destroy your lovely pumpkin. But IF you’re determined to send it to the table on a plat or a serving platter then the best way to lift a stuffed pumpkin is to use the parchment paper as a little sling to get it up and away.
Lining a pan that JUST holds the pumpkin, say an 8×8 baking pan, with parchment paper means it looks nice when taken from the oven AND will look ok on the table. BUT any oven-proof pan will work just fine. And as I mentioned above you can always lift the pumpkin if you have lined the pan with parchment paper you can lift with.
To serve the pumpkin you can do it two ways:
- cut it in quarters or eighths and serve slices
OR
- scoop the stuffing filling and the pumpkin out together
What if I can’t find a Sugar Pie Pumpkin to Stuff?
If you can’t find a sugar pie pumpkin try another winter squash! You could cut open two acorn squash and stuff the halves with the filling. Or you could try a Kabocha Squash of about the same size.
Savory Stuffed Pumpkin
Ingredients
- 3 pound sugar pie pumpkin*
- 4 cups dried bread cubes*
- 1 TBSP light olive oil or vegetable oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 cup diced onion you can white or yellow
- 1/2 cup diced celery
- 16 ounces mild Italian sausage*
- 2 apples peeled and diced
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 TBSP rubbed sage chopped
- 1 TBSP fresh rosemary chopped
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- preheat the oven to 350˚
- wash the pumpkin and cut the top out of it, set the top aside
- clean the inside of the pumpkin out, you can save the seeds and roast them if you like
- salt and pepper the cavity and set the whole pumpkin in a baking dish and set aside
- put the dried bread cubes in a bowl and set aside
- saute the onion, celery in a frying pan for 3-4 minutes
- if the sausage is in casings remove it
- crumble the sausage into the frying pan with the onions and celery
- cook until it's browned and cooked through
- add the chopped apples and cook another 3-4 minutes
- add herbs and garlic and cook 30 seconds or just until fragrant
- pour the cooked mixture over the bread cubes and stir to combine
- stir the eggs into the broth and pour over the bread cubes toss lightly
- then add cranberries
- toss again
- stuff in the prepared pumpkin add the top and bake whole for 40 minutes
- then set the top to the side of the pumpkin and bake for 20 more minutes
- slice and serve OR scoop to serve
Notes
Nutrition
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You have given me such a great idea for Thanksgiving. As vegans, it would make a spectacular entree (with my own vegan stuffing of course-or using your recipe with vegan sausage. I made one years ago, but had forgotten about it. Your recipe looks wonderful. Visiting from Gluten-Free A-Z Blog.
This is a beautiful way to present pumpkin as an entree. I’m going to bring this to my next potluck!
What time and temp would you recommend for an air fryer oven? I am waiting on my main oven to be replaced.
Can the pumpkin be stuffed the night before it is to be baked?
Make the filling and get everything ready to go, store them separately. Refrigerate it overnight, then stuff and bake. It’s best to make it and bake it immediately.