Stuffed Mini-Pumpkins with Wild Rice and Kale
Oct 31, 2017 (Last updated Aug 26, 2022) by Hannah Sunderani
Stuffed Mini-Pumpkins with Wild Rice and Kale
Happy Halloween everyone! Here’s a smashing pumpkin dish to celebrate the occasion! I love this recipe because the mini pumpkins are such a fall treat! Doesn’t everything just taste better when it’s mini? Finally we can say, “I’m so hungry I could eat a whole pumpkin!” and mean it!
Actually, I’ll be completely honest in saying that I didnt know these mini jack-be-little pumpkins were edible! I thought they were strictly a decorative piece, not for eating. At home we used to always have gourds and jack-be-little pumpkins scattered around the house, and never did we cook with them. Just wait for the next time I serve this dish at a family gathering….that’ll give us pumpking to talk about! 😉
Yep, it turns out you can eat these mini-pumkins! And oh my gourd they’re delicious. (Okay I’ll stop it with the bad puns now). Of course it only took me 28 years and moving to France to realize this tid-bit of information. It wasn’t until I saw them being sold at the market that it clicked in you could cook with them. What’s more is that you can eat the skin too, just like the red kuri squash (potimarron) that I’ve come accustomed to buying for soups and puree-ing for pumpkin cakes. Plus, you can also save the pumpkin seeds inside these little pumpkins and roast them up, meaning there is absolutely no food waste that goes into eating this delicious dinner dish (apart from the stem – best to leave that to the garbage to feast on).
I’ve stuffed these mini-pumpkins with a 5-grain medley by GoGo Quinoa. No, this isn’t a promotion for the brand, I just happened to have it in my pantry and liked the perfect melange of red quinoa, amaranth, brown rice, split peas, and wild rice. If you want to use it too I think they sell it at Costco and most Canadian grocers. My parents-in-law had brought it to France thinking I’d like the medley, and of course I did. But, you can always stuff these pumpkins using wild rice, brown rice, or whatever other grain you fancy. This is what I would have done if I didn’t have the GoGo Quinoa medley.
I’ve then made the medley even tastier cooking it in vegetable broth, and mixing in balsamic and lime, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and kale. The end result is TO DIE FOR. It tastes so hearty and warm for the cooling fall weather, and pairs beautifully with the pumpkin. And, when we’ve got little kiddies prepping for a cold night of trick-or-treating we’ve got to make sure they have a warm and full belly to conquer the night! And for us adults, these stuffed pumpkins along side a glass of red wine (a.k.a. candy for adults) is a perfect way to get in the Halloween spirit.
So ring in the spook with this delicious mini stuffed pumpkins…It’s smashing.
Happy Halloween Everyone!
Stuffed Mini-Pumpkins with Wild Rice and Kale
Ingredients
Filling:
- 1 cup wild rice
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- pinch sea salt
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 tbsp balsamic
- 1 cup chopped kale
- pinch sea salt and pepper to taste
Pumpkins:
- 6 jack-be-little pumpkins
- 2 tbsp olive oil for painting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F/200C, line a baking tray with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan add the wild rice, broth, oil and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook with the lid on until pleasantly chewy in texture, 25 to 30 minutes. When cooked pour in the balsamic vinegar and lime juice. Stir and cover with a tea towel. Let stand for 10 minutes. Then, add the dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, kale, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine.
- Meanwhile, cut the tops off each pumpkin to create a lid and scoop out the seeds. Paint each pumpkin (inside and outside) with the olive oil. Place the pumpkins on the baking tray and bake until fork-tender and golden, 20 to 30 minutes. Fill the cooked pumpkins with the rice medley and serve.
Notes
Approvals
Nutrition
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The little pumpkins were a HUGE hit for Halloween dinner and we are making them now for Thanksgiving.