Rice Stuffed Pumpkin Fall Recipe

I think we all know I’m a huge Fancy Peasant fan! I love everything she makes right down to her olive oil– seriously, it is the best! Now that fall is around the corner, I thought I’d make her Rice Stuffed Pumpkin Recipe! It’s time to eat all of the pumpkin flavored things before the holidays roll around. It’s ideal to enjoy this whole season, but this recipe is the perfect addition for your Thanksgiving table, as well! Stuffed pumpkins are a great addition to your fall dinner rotation as well as holiday season prep. It’s simple to spoon rice mixture into a small pumpkin or you can enjoy this in a pumpkin dish. It stores great in an airtight container and I promise, you’ll have a hard time resisting this whole thing.

Here is one of our favorite recipes for this time of year.

Medium or Large Pumpkin

With Halloween around the corner, getting your hands on a whole pumpkin might become a bit more difficult! Although, the pumpkin patches seem to have plenty! This recipe really calls for larger pumpkins, rather than mini pumpkins, primarily because you can get more pumpkin flesh for this pumpkin recipe out of a larger one. But also, the way you can display it looks so much more fun than just putting it in a side dish. If you have an instant pot, that could be more time saving than cooking everything in a large saucepan. With it being October, we are fully taking advantage of all pumpkin related recipes to enjoy for autumn!

Swap or Add On

My kids love to bake pumpkin seeds, which is also a fantastic snack recipe, but this is definitely more of a meal. It’s really filling with this rice mixture. Obviously if there’s something that goes against a dietary restriction, such as nuts-feel free to swap it out for cranberries or something! But I even think this would be even heartier if you made the cooked rice in vegetable stock rather than water. Feel free to always swap in any replacements you feel fit for recipes!

Recipe

1 medium or large pumpkin

1 cup rice (washed and boiled)

1/4 cup walnuts

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup golden berries

1/3 cup GEVOO or Olive Oil

1 tablespoon honey

Cinnamon (optional)

Instructions

Cut the lid off a pumpkin into a pattern, clean well from the inside and dry it with a paper towel.

Over medium heat, sauté all the nuts, cranberries, and golden berries together with olive oil for about 5 minutes.

Add boiled rice.

Add salt, pepper, and honey.

Add the filling to the dried pumpkin.

Bake at 400° for about an hour until the pumpkin is soft.

Serve with a little cinnamon, if you’d like.

This rice stuffing is a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner side dish we like to enjoy all season long!

I even think some orange zest, fresh herbs such as fresh sage or even bell peppers would be delicious with this recipe! If you’d like to swap out the rice for brown rice or add ground beef for protein, that would be delicious! Additionally, if you’re trying to figure out how much rice is enough, you can always add two cups or three more if you’re serving a family, rather than a couple of people. The ratios will all depend on the size of your pumpkin and how many people will be at your dinner party. This makes for a great holiday recipe, as well, for Thanksgiving!

This recipe was originally published October 19th, 2022*

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