Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 1hr 30 mins
Servings: 8 people
Ingredients
* 1 pumpkin, about 1.4-1.8kg (3-4 lb)
* 250ml (1 cup) rice
* 500ml (2 cups) vegetable stock (optional)
* 15g (½ oz ) butter
* 300g (10 oz) leeks, chopped
* 300g mushrooms, quartered
* 2.5ml (½ teaspoon) nutmeg
* 2.5ml (½ teaspoon) cinnamon
* salt and pepper to taste
* parsley, to garnish
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. Halve pumpkin crosswise and scoop out seeds and strings. Place pumpkin halves in a large baking dish, shallow side down. Bake, uncovered, for 1-1½ hours, or until fork tender.
2. Meanwhile, Boil the rice and stock (you can use water if you like) in a saucepan until cooked. Drain and set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a large frying pan, add the leeks and fry gently for about 10 minutes until sweet and tender. Add the mushrooms, nutmeg and cinnamon and fry for another 5 minutes. Lower the heat, add the rice to the vegetable mixture and stir well to blend all the flavours.
4. Quarter the two cooked pumpkin halves and divide the vegetable-rice mixture evenly between the pumpkin wedges. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.
Notes
* Brown basmati, red camargue and wild rice were used for the stuffing to give the dish a wonderful earthy and nutty flavour.
* Different varieties of rice have different cooking times.
* Smaller pumpkins can be halved and served as individual portions. Their cooking times will be less though.
* Vegans can substitute the butter with any oil they prefer.
**Credits: Greedy Gourmet
