Come and try our delicious recipe for pumpkin and her stuffing. The combination of earthy pumpkin and fragrant herbs makes this perfect for your turkey
Smooth squash contrasts beautifully with crisp breadcrumbs in this seasonal meat-free pumpkin stuffing.
Pumpkins are not just for Halloween. They are in season from October through to December in the UK, making this stuffing recipe a delightful autumn option. The sweet, earthy squash flavour, combined with fragrant herbs, works well with poultry roasts - chicken or turkey especially. It’s even a good addition to a Christmas feast. This recipe is suitable for vegetarians. However, if you prefer something a bit meatier you can swap out the vegetable stock for chicken stock, and add a little fried, chopped bacon or sautéed sausage meat.
Ingredients
1 small pumpkin, skin and seeds removed, diced
25g butter, plus extra for greasing
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
1tbsp chopped sage
1tbsp chopped thyme
75g stale bread, crusts removed
1 egg, beaten
250ml vegetable stock
WEIGHT CONVERTER
grams
to
cups
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7.
Spread out the diced pumpkin onto a lightly greased baking tray. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, turning once. Remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the red onion, celery and herbs and allow to cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes until soft, stirring frequently.
Crumble the stale bread into a large mixing bowl, add the onion mixture, egg, roasted pumpkin, stock and seasoning. Stir thoroughly to combine.
Transfer the stuffing to an oven-proof dish and cook in the oven for 40 minutes.
Slice into wedges and serve.
Top tips for making pumpkin stuffing
If your bread isn’t stale enough to crumble easily by hand, you can make the breadcrumbs in a food processor. For a step-by-step guide, check out ourhow to make breadcrumbs (opens in new tab)guide.
You can use butternut instead of pumpkin in this recipe, or mix the two together. After squash season try it with celeriac, which is also great with chicken, or sweet potato, which is especially good with vegetarian or salmon roasts.
Octavia Lillywhite is an award-winning food and lifestyle journalist with over 15 years of experience. With a passion for creating beautiful, tasty family meals that don’t use hundreds of ingredients or anything you have to source from obscure websites, she’s a champion of local and seasonal foods, using up leftovers and composting, which, she maintains, is probably the most important thing we all can do to protect the environment.
Roast chicken stuffing
