i brought this to christmas lunch to impress my conservative family with a vegan dish. also made an appearance at the skramzmas vegan dinner!

Ingredients

  • 1 butternut pumpkin
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • salt
  • 2tbsp olive oil, again
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 finely diced red onion
  • ~100g white button mushrooms
  • 1/3 cup french green lentils
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2tsp fresh rosemary finely chopped
  • 1/2tsp thyme leaves finely chopped
  • 1/2tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/3 cup red wine
  • 3/4 cup vegetable stock
  • 1 1/4 cup quinoa & lentil blend (i had this in my pantry, would probably substitute with brown rice) cooked
  • 1 cup roughly cut baby spinach
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped pistachios
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped roasted cashews
  • 3/4tsp salt
  • black pepper

Instructions

  1. preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan force.
  2. cut the pumpkin in half lengthways. scoop out the seeds w/ a spoon. rub each half of the pumpkin with olive oil (both the flesh and skin). sprinkle the flesh with a generous amount of salt.
  3. bake on a baking tray for 1 hour, until the centre can be easily pierced with a knife without much resistance.
  4. leaving the pumpkin aside to cool, heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. cook the garlic, onion, and mushrooms for around 4 minutes.
  5. add the lentils, cranberries, rosemary, thyme, nutmeg, wine, and veg stock. bring to a boil, then simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, until ALL liquid is absorbed.
  6. turn the stove off and stir the quinoa & lentils/brown rice. set aside for 10 minutes to cool, then stir in spinach, nuts, salt, and a generous amount of pepper.
  7. leaving a 1.5-2cm thick wall of flesh the whole way around, scoop out the pumpkin flesh and use a tea towel or paper towel to squeeze out excess water. stir this flesh into the stuffing mix.
  8. sprinkle a little more salt into the mostly hollow pumpkin. pack the stuffing into one half of the pumkpin shell, filling it so that it piles up. place the other half of the pumpkin shell on top.
  9. tie the two halves together with cooking twine, trussing every 3cm.
  10. bake the pumpkin for 40 minutes, until the filling is hot in the middle.

serve it forth <3

pumpkin1 pumpkin2