These sweet little pie pumpkins are dressed up savory with grassfed beef and vegetables, and then and hit with the sweet warmth of cinnamon.
This is such a cozy time of year.
I’ll admit that I am totally a summer girl – I love my sunshine, bare feet, and beach days. But I don’t care how much you love summer, you just can’t get more gorgeous than autumn in Michigan!
The weather is still warm enough to enjoy playing outside, but there is enough chill in the air to make the house cozy and comfortable by turning the oven on in the evening for dinner.
This is a great time of year to take advantage of delicious seasonal pumpkins at your farmer’s markets and grocery stores.
Pie pumpkins (sometimes labeled sugar pumpkins) are not just for sweet desserts! They make a really delicious squash side for dinner, and if you have never had savory pumpkin before you are really in for a treat! These little stuffed pumpkins have a hint of cinnamon to give it a slight sweet warmth, and the kids are really going to have fun eating these! They make a fun, nourishing meal before trick or treating!
Don’t be intimidated by its fancy look – this is definitely do-able on a weeknight too! Make the stir fry “stuffing” part the night before (or early morning), and just store it away – then it just needs to be stuffed into the pumpkin after the squash roasts – super quick hands on time. You can also have the kids scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin while you do other things! Quick throw the pumpkin in the oven when you get home from school or work and do homework with the kids, finish up emails, etc.
Stuffed Pumpkin
Ingredients
- 2 pie pumpkins halved and seeds scooped out
- 1 1/2 cups cooked shredded roast beef (ground beef works too - I like to use leftovers from a roast beef dinner the night before!)
- 1 small onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 small head cabbage sliced thin
- 2 handfuls of baby spinach chopped
- 1 cup cooked long grain white rice cooked quinoa would work, or if you are grain free just leave the grain out or use cauliflower rice
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- salt/pepper to taste
- 1 cup raw cheese grated
Instructions
- Place the halved pumpkins flesh side up on a baking sheet, butter the flesh, and then salt and pepper the flesh. Roast in a 425 degree oven for 50 minutes.
- While the pumpkin is roasting, cook the filling (the filling only takes about 20 minutes to make so you can either make it ahead of time or make it a half hour into roasting the squash so they are done at the same time). Start by melting a few TB of butter (or bacon grease makes this taste amazing!) in a pan and add the onion and cabbage with a big pinch of sea salt. Cook on medium/high heat for 15 minutes or so until the cabbage cooks down, softens, and sweetens.
- Add the garlic, spinach, beef, and cinnamon cook about 5 minutes until the spinach wilts.
- Add the cooked rice, combine, and then taste the mixture for sea salt and pepper and season to your taste.
- Stuff the middle of the roasted pumpkin with the cooked cabbage and beef filling. Really stuff it all in there. Sprinkle cheese over the top, and bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes to melt the cheese.
For more real food dinner ideas follow my Dinner Ideas board on Pinterest!
More real food ideas you might like ::
Stuffed Acorn Squash
How To Make A Simple Beef Roast
Looks delicious Renee! That cheese, oh my goodness! Yum!
What a fun use for little squash! Thanks for sharing:)
Yummy and so healthy! Pinned:)
My husband and I had something like this in a restaurant in Vermont once! Excited to give it a try at home! Great recipe!
You always make me love Michigan! 🙂 These little dinner pots look lovely!
Love stuffed pumpkin! It’s a meal!
Oh they look amazing!! What a great recipe!
I haven’t seen fall leaves in forever living in Arizona. Great recipe.
This is so yummy! I just made it, it hits on almost all my Fall food loves.
I like my food spiced well, so I added in 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp black mustard seeds, 1 tsp sambar powder, 1 tsp garam masala, and double the amount of cinnamon. I love Indian spices. The sambar powder added just enough heat, or I would have also added a bit of cayenne.
The ratio of meat to rice to cabbage is perfect.
Thank you!!
Sounds great!
This sounds so delicious and easy! I’m going to have to try this one out, thanks.
This looks like a Thanksgiving table must have!
Oh lordy, lookin’ almost too good!
Do you think this would work with butternut squash?
Hi Amy! I think you would have to scoop out some of the squash in order to get all of the stuffing in there – the opening for the butternut isn’t as big – does that make sense?
Yep! Thanks 🙂
I always love to see a recipe that uses whole pumpkin for something other than just a fall decoration! 🙂
Acorn squash was on sale so I think I am going to make this using those. I am also considering using sausage as the meat. I think the flavorings in the sausage would go well with the squash, etc.
Sounds delicious Amanda!
Just cooked this for my family using a sweet dumpling variety of squash grown on my allotment in the UK. Was a little worried how it would turn out while I was cooking the stuffing, but the flavours just worked together to make a really delicious dinner. Also thought I might need some gravy (UK gravy, not US gravy!) or something in case it was a little dry but no, it needed none of that and my family loved it. It’s on the list for “must cook again” (we grow a LOT of squash!). Thanks!
Clive I love that! Tell me what the difference between US and UK gravy is! I am very curious! Thanks!
I love pumpkins. This will be perfect for the coming fall season. Thanks so much !
Can you tell me what type of cheese you use? Thanks!
I use a lot of Manchego which is a sheeps milk cheese – we tolerate goat/sheep milk well. If you are dairy free the Viola Life coconut based cheese melts so good and works well!