Quinoa cranberry stuffed mini-pumpkins with shitake mushrooms
Autumn is my favorite time of year and one of the reasons is the masses of pumpkins available everywhere. Pumpkin is such a potent food for health. It can improve your love life, help you look younger, fight heart disease, and improve your eyesight among many other benefits. This year I vowed I wouldn’t let pumpkin season go by without eating my fill of them.
Besides being really cute, these mini pumpkins were crying out to be stuffed with something savoury. I had a flashback of an unforgettable lunch in Tuscany where the pumpkin gnocchi was gloriously doused in sage butter. Add to that memory an intense craving for my annual christmas mexican style cranberry chutney and the idea for this dinner was born.
These flavours merge really well together. The zesty lime pairs so nicely with the tart cranberries against the sweetness of the pumpkin. The sage and chilli bring a nice earthiness and spicy heat to the dish. Add some pinenuts for crunch and the satisfying quinoa stuffing base and you have a delicious dinner that is also really fun to eat.
This is nice served with a lime wedge and even a small green salad. You can eat the whole thing (including the rind) of the mini-pumpkins. While the name sounds small, they are actually quite filling on their own, so you may not even need a sidedish.
Quinoa cranberry stuffed mini-pumpkins with shitake mushrooms
Ingredients
- 4 mini-pumpkins
- 1 red onion diced
- 3 Tbsp fresh sage or 1 Tbsp dry, minced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 red chilli or as much heat as you like - I like things to be spicy, so adjust downwards if you prefer milder tastes, minced
- 1 punnet shitake mushrooms 125 g, diced
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup pinenuts
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
- Zest and 1 Tbsp juice from 1 lime
- 2 cups cooked quinoa 1 cup dry
Instructions
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Preheat oven
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Wash the mini-pumpkins, dry them and then cut off the lids (do a few rough zigzags around the top, and the lid will pop off). Scoop out the seeds.
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Line a deep baking sheet with tinfoil, pour a few Tbsp of hot water onto the foil, then place your 4 pumpkin bodies onto the tray and put tray in the oven for 20-30 minutes until soft. (Note: If you have room, you can also bake the little lids alongside them for a nice presentation option!)
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While the pumpkins are in oven, get a small pot and bring just under 2 cups of water to a boil. Add 1 cup quinoa and turn heat to simmer with lid on for about 15 mins.
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In a large pot, melt coconut oil on medium heat and cook the onions, for a few minutes. Add the garlic, chilli and sage and cook for 1 more minute. Finally add the shitake mushrooms and cook them for a few minutes until they turn soft.
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Take off the heat, and add the cranberries, pinenuts, fresh parsley, lime zest, lime juice and cooked quinoa. Stir to mix well!
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Peek in on your pumpkins. Once they start to brown a bit, and are soft and edible, take them out of the oven.
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Spoon your quinoa stuffing into each pumpkin and serve straight away.
Main benefits of eating this
- Besides the impressive health benefits of the pumpkin itself, shitake mushrooms are a well known immune system booster/cancer protector and red onions contain flavonoids (including quercetin) and sulfur-containing nutrients which are excellent for circulation and heart health
I have made these a few times over the last month and I’m in love. It’s a great way to eat pumpkin, and if you find you can’t find a mini-pumpkin or have loads of the regular pumpkins on hand, just cut them up into large chunks and bake for 20-30 mins. Then you can spoon the quinoa stuffing over top. This is such an autumn delight and a really yummy way to power up on nutrients.
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