Stuffed Pumpkin

This special Stuffed Pumpkin is a meal our kids look forward to every season and has become one of our favorite Fall food traditions! It's a hearty, nutritious meal that is packed with flavor and served right from the pumpkin!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword Stuffed Pumpkin

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 1 30

Total Time 1 50

Servings servings

Calories 797kcal

Ingredients

1 medium pumpkin *see note
3 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion diced
2 ribs celery diced
1 cup mushrooms sliced
1 clove garlic minced
8 ounces water chestnuts drained and diced
1 tablespoon rubbed sage
1 tablespoon thyme dried
1 pound ground beef
10 ounces cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
4 cups wild rice cooked

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Wash and dry the outside of your pumpkin. Cut a wide circle around the top of the pumpkin (wider than you normally cut it when you carve a pumpkin) and clean out the seeds and pulp from the inside of the pumpkin.
In a large skillet, saute onion, celery, mushrooms, garlic and water chestnuts over medium high heat for 5-6 minutes until they become tender and the onions are translucent. Remove from pan into a bowl and set aside.
In the same pan, heat over medium high and add ground beef, sage, thyme, salt, and pepper and cook until the ground beef is cooked through.
In a small mixing bowl, add the cream of mushroom, brown sugar, and soy sauce. Whisk to combine. Add to the ground beef along with the veggies, and cooked wild rice. Stir well to combine everything.
Add mixture to your cleaned out pumpkin and put the top on the pumpkin. Place on the baking sheet and bake for 1 hour. The time it takes to cook will vary depending on how big your pumpkin is. After an hour, you can check to see if it's done. The outside of the pumpkin will be a dark orange, and the inside will be fork tender when it is done. If it isn't done, let it cook for another 10-15 minutes. Continue baking until it is done. Larger pumpkins can take up to 2 hours!
When the pumpkin is done, remove it from the oven and transfer to a serving platter. Open the lid and give it a stir. When you are serving, scoop pumpkin with each spoonful. Enjoy!

Notes

*You can use small individual pumpkins instead of one large pumpkin if you want. The cook time will be a lot faster using small pumpkins and so adjust accordingly.

Nutrition