Pumpkin often gets short shrift when it comes to savoury dishes. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, and even pumpkin cheesecake show up on menus once the weather starts to turn. But pumpkin is as lovely as any other squash when it comes to appetizers, soups, or entrées. Pumpkins roasted whole make for beautiful presentation, too.
This week’s French Fridays recipe is a stuffed, roasted pumpkin that’s both beautiful and delicious. It’s a great choice for a dinner party or holiday meal. Dorie’s recipe includes cream, cheese, and bacon, but would be easy to convert for vegetarian or vegan guests. Or switch the bread cubes for rice and you have a great gluten-free version.
The hardest part of this recipe for me was finding a small pumpkin. People are on the hunt for Jack O’ Lanterns at this time of year and the markets were filled with giant pumpkins. The smallest one I was able to find was about six pounds, twice the weight called for in the recipe, so I was generous with the filling ingredients. The basic stuffing uses bread cubes, garlic, herbs, bacon, and cheese, which is then covered in nutmeg-spiced heavy cream.
I was lucky enough to be able to use garlic my Dad grew, along with thyme, chives, and Swiss chard from my mother’s garden. Along with some high-fibre bread, I’m quite sure that this was a healthy dish. (Please ignore the additions of bacon, heavy cream, Emmenthal and old cheddar.)
It made a lovely meal beside some grilled venison steaks, which I’d marinated in oil, red wine, garlic, lemon juice, and some Montreal Steak Spice. Since the pumpkin was so big, I pulled the leftover stuffing out of the pumpkin, chopped the pumpkin meat finely, and mixed it all together. I pan-fried some for a great lunch the next day. Elegant at its first serving and good as leftovers – this recipe will be revisited, though I doubt it will ever be made the same way twice. As Dorie said, it’s more of an outline than a recipe, after all.
You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good
One Wet Foot 
Teresa….I made this stuffed pumpkin to go with my roast pork rib…just like you :)) and looking at yours makes me want to make again and drooling too !
We really enjoyed this one, even my non eating squash husband. He requested I make it for Thanksgiving. It was delicious! Your pumpkin looks super yummy and I love that you pan fried it the second day. Have a lovely weekend!
Tricia and I both thought this was a wonderful dish and the stuffing can be made so many different
ways. Yours looks fantastic, as well as those steaks. I like the addition of swiss chard,
which is one of my favorite vegetables.
I love your creative use of the leftovers. In all fairness, a little cream and cheese don’t do much harm when compared to the chard and pounds of healthy pumpkin they cooked in (or so I tell myself).
Your stuffing looks so good. Our pumpkin was larger that called for, but we’ve also enjoyed the leftovers. All mix is so beautiful and flavorful sounding…I will add more goodies next time for this one.
Your first picture of the pumpkin was beautiful. I also had a difficult time finding a smaller pumpkin. This is such a great dish and I am just sorry it’s so seasonal. Thanks for sharing your version of “good stuff” with us.
Use of fresh garden ingredients negates out the heavy cream, cheese & bacon, right?
Very beautiful, Teresa!
The comment about an outline for some reason reminded me of Pirates of Carribean movie where it was more like a “guideline” – we used that phrase forever after seeing the first movie. Thought this was a winner, and like you said (and Dorie too) it is a great base to create your own dishes. Venison steaks sounds delish, and how lucky to be able to use your dad’s garlic!
Happy French Weekend!
What a beautiful meal. Your pumpkin and steak looks so delicious and your photos are just lovely. I hope you are having a good weekend!
Looks great! I never actually weighed my pumpkin. I just found one that looked like the right size for two people. I love this recipe so much!
Looks delicious and my husband would have been very jealous of your venison steaks! We really enjoyed this one as well and will also be making it again in the future.
It’s interesting that you point out that pumpkin is so often used to make desserts in the US. In Germany pumpkin is primarily used to make soup and I have only very rarely seen it served in other savory dishes. Never in desserts! Telling people that we eat pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving is like trying to convince someone that broccoli pie would be a tasty dessert. It just sounds weird.
Looks great – love the addition of the swiss chard and chopping up the leftovers and pan-frying. Also – the venison – yum!
OMG your stuffing looks delicious!!!! I didnt care for the pumpkin part, I think it was the bland taste. Lucky you liked it!
The home-grown garlic looks great. I love the purple color. I agree, I think the additions of swiss chard and bread make this a very healthy recipe 🙂 At least that’s what I tell myself…
Loved your post; I had a hard time finding the small pumpkin as well! After making this I toyed with the idea of running back to Whole Foods to buy all 3 pound pumpkins!
I know what you mean about the size of the pumpkins – way too big for me to handle. Your pumpkin turned out really well – I am greedily eying up your strips of bacon.