Cooking the Season: Stuffed Pumpkin

I love the colors of this season! Reds, oranges, yellows - they're beautiful in the trees and in the food. When I was still at Virginia Beach, I started seeing the glorious and beautiful bounty of the Fall season at my favorite little farm stand, and I brought some of it back with me in the form of beautiful orange, green and white pumpkins that contributed to this cozy dish. I needed something to add to a studio pot luck, and I really wanted to use one of the colorful pumpkins as a centerpiece to my dish. Here's what I did:

First I dry roasted some poblano peppers, carrots, fennel, parsnips, sweet potatoes and garlic with a generous sprinkle of turmeric and cumin. 

While they roasted, I saute-ed shallots with crimini and shiitake mushrooms, 

then added some corn I cut off the cob and torn pieces of kale (with a little salt and pepper). 

I put the lid on and let everything steam in the mushroom juices until everything was tender, and when the veggies were roasted tender, I tossed those in as well.

Then I realized I had some of Rosetta's Peanut Butter Tofu, and I roasted that up and added it to the veggies.

I picked the gorgeous white pumpkin for my cooking and serving vessel. I cut a lid, scooped out the seeds (they'll be cleaned and roasted later), and based on a suggestion I saw on another blog, I grated a bit of manchego cheese in the bottom of the pumpkin, to help keep it from seeping out the bottom when it cooked.

I filled the pumpkin with my roasted veggie mix, put on the lid and put it on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven. I baked it until it was darkened and tender. The lid started to get a little over-browned, but I had an aluminum pie plate that covered it perfectly for the last 30-45 minutes of baking. All together, it was in the oven almost 3 hours.

Results - gorgeous, delicious, comforting tastes of Fall!

And what was left in the pumpkin after the dinner was mixed with some cooked quinoa to make a perfect filling for some roasted poblanos the next day!