Cranberry Goat Cheese Stuffed Acorn Squash
Ingredients
- 6 acorn squash
- Olive oil, for drizzling
- Kosher salt and pepper
- 2 cups long grain and wild rice, cooked
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, chopped
- 2 cups kale, chopped
- ⅓ cup dried cherries or cranberries
- ⅓ cup pumpkin seeds or walnuts
- 4 ounces goat cheese
- 2 tbsp. cilantro or parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400°F.
- Roast the squash first; this can be done ahead of time; if roasted the night before, simply store in a baking dish covered with foil in the refrigerator.
- To make the standing squash like the photo, slice the bottom tip off so the squash can stand; slice the top stem off.
- Use a knife or serrated spoon to scrape out the seeds in the center.
- Brush the insides and outsides with olive oil.
- Season all over with salt and pepper; especially the insides.
- Turn upside down on a baking sheet.
- Place in pre-heated oven and roast for 25 to 30 minutes or until fork tender.
- While the squash roasts, make the filling. Cook the rice as you traditionally would; you need 2 cups of cooked rice.
- Heat a drizzle of olive oil, in a large nonstick skillet and add the onions and the garlic, along with a pinch of salt.
- Cook for 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent.
- Stir in the mushrooms; cook for another 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are soft and juicy.
- Stir in the kale; allow it to cook down; it will take about 5 minutes.
- Add the rice to the skillet with another big pinch of salt and pepper; stir everything together.
- Stir in the dried fruit and the nuts or pepitas.
- At this point, you can refrigerate the mixture to stuff later or use right away.
- If you use it now, stir in the crumbled goat cheese; if you serve it later, stir in the goat cheese right before filling the squash.
- Fill the inside of the squash with the filling.
- Place all the stuffed squash on a baking sheet.
- Stick the sheet back in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes to warm everything together.
- Remove the squash from the oven and sprinkle with parsley or cilantro, pumpkin seeds or walnuts.
Notes
This recipe can also serve 12, if you choose to slice the squash down the center and serve these as “boats.”
Remove the seeds, roast for roughly the same amount of time, add the filling inside the squash boat and bake.