Fill up on fall: stuffed pumpkin for Halloween dinner

The autumn harvest brings with it a bounty of fall foods, and dropping temperatures make me want to snuggle up by the fire with a warm bowl of something savory. When picking up Halloween pumpkins for the kids to carve, don’t forget that the jack o’ lantern can also make a delicious dinner!

My favorite way to eat pumpkin is stuffed with sausage, rice and vegetables. My mom used to make this festive dinner before trick-or-treating when I was a kid, and her mother made it before her. It takes approximately an hour to bake and prep time is minimal, making it perfect for a busy weeknight. I use lima beans and corn, but any type of vegetable can be substituted, depending on your personal preference. I hope your family loves it as much as mine does!

Stuffed Pumpkin

1 sugar pumpkin

1 cup rice, white, brown or wild

1 roll sausage, sweet or hot

1 envelope onion soup mix

1 box frozen lima beans

1 box or can of corn

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Set out lima beans and corn to thaw or place in the microwave for a few seconds until thawed completely. Drain.

Start the rice cooking. Cut the top off the pumpkin and scoop the seeds and pulp out. Discard, or save the seeds for roasting later.

Crumble sausage into a skillet or saute pan. Add onion soup mix and a little water or olive oil if your sausage is light or non-greasy. Cook until browned.

When rice and sausage have finished cooking, mix rice, lima beans, corn and sausage together. Scoop into pumpkin, placing extra stuffing in a casserole dish as necessary.

Place pumpkin on a baking sheet and bake until the pumpkin is soft when pricked with a fork and the filling is heated through, approximately one hour, depending on the size of the pumpkin. If you want the top of the filling to get crispy, leave the top off the pumpkin.

Can’t get enough pumpkin this time of year? Check Page 7 for more recipes to use this versatile autumn vegetable.

Guest editorial by Journal Staff Reporter Lizz Schumer.