Stuffed Winter Squash

05 November 2009 ~ 5 Comments

Serves: 4 Prep time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour

2 acorn squash, cut in half, and seeds cleaned out

1 lb turkey sausage diced

1 cup cooked brown rice

1 tart apple (I used granny smith) peeled, cored, and chopped

1 pear, peeled, cored and chopped

1 T brown sugar

1 T maple syrup

½ cup chopped walnuts

½ cup craisins

½ cup golden raisins

1 t cinnamon

1 clove garlic chopped

½ t nutmeg

¼ cup apple juice

S&P

Unsalted butter

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place your squash on a baking sheet flesh side up. Pierce the squash with a fork several times. Sprinkle with olive oil and salt and pepper.

In a large skillet over medium heat brown your turkey sausage, about 7 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine rice, apples, pears, sugar, syrup, walnuts, craisins, raisins, cinnamon, garlic, nutmeg and apple juice. Stir to combine. When the sausage is browned add it to the stuffing mixture and season with S&P.

Distribute stuffing mixture evenly among your squash. Top with a pat of butter and bake for one hour.

Tasty Tidbit: You could make this dish with butternut squash or even a small pumpkin!

Terrifying Turkey Chili

Tags: acorn squash, apple, brown rice, butter, cinnamon, garlic, maple syrup, nutmeg, olive oil, pear, raisins, turkey sausage, walnuts

5 Responses to “Stuffed Winter Squash”

Jill 7 November 2009 at 10:01 Permalink

Love acorn squash. Can’t wait to try this one. What a great idea as a appetizer for Thanksgiving maybe!
Alex Fitzpatrick 7 November 2009 at 10:53 Permalink

Oh good idea Jill! Maybe I will bust this out for Thanksgiving.
Karla 11 November 2009 at 20:03 Permalink

what is turkey sausage?
Alex Fitzpatrick 12 November 2009 at 12:12 Permalink

I’m glad you asked that Karla…Turkey sausage is sweet or hot italian sausage made from turkey instead of pork. You can find it in your grocer’s meat section next to the ground turkey or right alongside the pork sausages. They also make delicious chicken sausage varieties along with tofu sausage, if that’s your thing. You could just use regular pork italian sausage as well. Anyway you make it, it will be delicious!
Karla 14 November 2009 at 13:37 Permalink

I made this for a lazy November Saturday…it smelled like fall as it baked! My oven baked too quickly and some stuffing burned on the top but there was so much on each one I just scraped off the burned pieces. Once out of the oven poke it up to cool quicker. We loved it- teens and adults alike! Even good as a brunch item.