My timing for this one is pretty awesome, I think. Happy Halloween everyone! Ever since I was a kid, Autumn has been my favorite season. Sweater weather, apple cider donuts, changing leaves and my Mom’s stuffed pumpkin. Now that I am far away from home, this is the second year I have made my own and me being me, I’ve put my own spin on it…
My
Mom’s stuffed pumpkin is always filled with seasoned ground beef with
white potatoes. You can’t really go wrong there! Last year I stuck
pretty close to the original but added in some greens.
This
year, I went two steps further out of the box by using ground sausage
meat, purple potatoes and spinach. Yowsa…it was pretty darn
good!
I am going to tell it in pictures:
I gutted and par-cooked my pumpkin at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. You really just need to keep an eye on it since every pumpkin is different. I also brushed the inside with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.
Filling: (I actually made most of the filling the day before and stored it in the fridge)
I started with a medium onion and sautéed it until translucent (you can chop it any way you like). Then I added some thinly sliced purple potatoes (about 7 small potatoes). I chose not to par boil them because I thought they’d keep more of their purple color. I added garlic powder, sage, rosemary and fennel seed to taste. Cook until potatoes begin to soften…
Then add 1 pound of pork sausage meat and brown. I took the mixture off the stove and cooked a bag of frozen spinach with some olive oil, garlic powder, lemon, crushed red pepper flakes and salt to taste before adding the meat and potatoes back in.
After all that, you can put the mixture into the pumpkin and put it back in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 more minutes. You want to be careful not to over cook because the pumpkin will start to sag (learned that last year).
XO