Stuffed pumpkin; or the tale of two pumpkins

Though I'm all about eating seasonally, I didn't have to go through any great lengths to attain this pumpkin. In fact it had become something of a decor piece since it's been sitting happily in my window sill since Thanksgiving. No joke. My aunt grew some impressive pumpkins and though I intended to cook it a bit sooner, I didn't try the vegan thing until recently and the pumpkin just lasted and lasted.

Anyhoo, some time ago I made a stuffed pumpkin but I used sausage. So I thought, why not vegan-ize this beast and feast? I ended up combing several recipes so I'll just list an approximation of the recipe I used.

Stuffed Pumpkin, vegan style

1 medium to large pumpkin
1 lb loaf whole wheat bread, cut into 1" cubes
1 cup cooked rice (I used wild rice)
1 cup ground almonds
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 apple, chopped; Granny Smith or Fuji
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and/or pecans
1/2 cup raw (green) pumpkin seeds
1 1/4 cup veggie broth
1/4 cup dried apricots or raisins 
2 Tbs Earth Balance (vegan butter)
Olive oil
Fresh thyme, rosemary
Dried sage, oregeno
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Cut the top off pumpkin and remove seeds. Brush inside with generous amount of olive oil, slat & pepper. Place on baking sheet lined with foil in oven and roast 15 minutes.

In medium pan, heat oil on medium heat. Add mushrooms and saute about 5-10 minutes. Add onion & celery and saute until translucent and mushrooms give up their liquid.  Add apples, zuchinni, walnuts, seeds & 1 Tbs "butter" and saute until soft. Add apricots, herbs, spices, broth and 1 Tbs "butter" and saute 5-10 minutes more. 

Meanwhile, combine bread cubes, rice and almond meal in large bowl. Gently fold in wet ingredients, careful not to mash bread. Spoon stuffing into pumpkin and place pumpkin back into oven for 15 to 30 more minutes. The pumpkin may should be very soft; you should be able to easily pierce the pumpkin with a fork.

Sadly, this blog had not yet been conceived so there's no visual record. Can I just give you a soulless picture of the cold and soggy leftovers? That's right, soggy. After about 20 minutes in the oven my pumpkin began to weep for it's unborn children (though it had not began to rot when I cut it open, the seeds inside had sprouted). However, the stuffing was glorious.

I recommend either making this for a very large group of people so as to eat as much as possible or devising a clever way to store the stuffing and pumpkin. Mine became very soggy after one or two days in the fridge.

In any case, this glorious pumpkin will have a second life. Stay tuned...