Buckwheat Stuffed Pumpkin

This is going to be a long recipe, because I recently learned that stuffing pumpkins is not something many people in my circle are aware is a thing. It’s a thing, and a delicious one. Most of the explanation for how to make this will be in pictures, with captions of varying lengths.

I’m currently engaged in a “Use it Up” challenge in a food group, and I had a few items that I thought would work really well in it. Once I’d pulled out what could be used from my “use it up” pantry goods, I pulled all the produce that needed to be eaten out of the fridge. May as well go big if I’m gonna use a single dish to wipe out a bunch of stuff in my kitchen!

Here’s what you’ll need

1-2 of the pie-sized pumpkins (this recipe will fill 2, but I froze the second half)

1 shallot

1 cup buckwheat or other grain of your choosing

1 can of potted meat (why was this even in my pantry?)

1 Ichiban eggplant or other small eggplant (1-1.5 cups diced)

about a third of a leek (roughly 1-1.5 cups chopped)

1 Anaheim or similar chile, chopped

4 of those tiny bell peppers or around half a regular one, diced

Here’s what you’ll do

This is my use it up picture. The almond flour isn’t relevant to the pumpkin, though it and the yeast were relevant to the rolls I was also making. I figured the easiest way to get rid of the almond flour would be to tump it into my flour mix.

The buckwheat needs to go in a pot with water (about 1:2 ratio) and will simmer for 10-15 minutes. Drain it well when it’s done.

Okay. I used that little corer you can see to cut open my pumpkin with that nice scallop pattern and also to scrape insides out. These styles of corers are easy to use and rather magical.

The edge is sharp along a larger percentage of the blade, so you can also use it as a scraper. That’s how I got all the seeds and guts out. Don’t throw those guts away, please.

Now you see why I’m strongly recommended the corer, yes? My hands didn’t get messy at all, either, unlike what happens with the hands or spoon method.

Remove guts from seeds the best you can.

Still some bits there. It’s whatever. Your oven should be set to 400F, because these guys want some baking. Make sure you add a little salt and pepper, plus some oil of your choosing before you roast these for about 15 minutes. I used these as a topping on our individual plates. There were some leftover, so those ones were for snacking. You could also season with coriander, cumin, clove, and/or cinnamon and that likely would taste good too.

Don’t throw those guts out! Chop them up!!

Here we have the peeled and diced eggplant, the leeks, shallots, chile, and bell peppers. I use different veggies every time I make this, because I only make it as a convenient way to get rid of a lot of odds and ends in one shot. This is a great fridge cleaning meal!

Mix them up, yum!

Buckwheat is done, and so are the seeds! Try to control yourself with the seeds, since others may want some too.

Buckwheat goes in with veggies. You can see the grain is still steaming. It doesn’t have to be steaming. It could be cold leftover rice instead, or whatever grain you’ve got on hand!

That is nicely mixed. Pumpkin went in a cast iron pan with water and got a funnel in it. I like the funnel because it’s easier and cleaner.

But wait… who’s that little can sitting there?

Ahhh man! I forgot about this guy and wasn’t sad about it. I really do not wish to waste food, though, so in it goes.

Did y’all know that contemporary potted meat is cat food marketed to humans? I sure didn’t until this happened?

Cat food legitimately doesn’t appeal to me, so although I almost scooped it out of the mix and into the trash, my frugal heart stopped me and I mixed the paste in the best I could. I had a lot of doubts, and kind of didn’t want to eat the dinner I was cooking at this point.

Pack it in there. No, seriously, pack it in tight. If you pretend this is meatloaf (spoiler alert: you could use meat instead of grain!) and make it dense in there, it won’t fall apart when you cut it open. You’ll see that below.

I used half.

Put the lid back on so your pumpkin is closed.

From what I could see, it all looked happy in there. Due to the density, it needs 45-60 minutes in there to fully cook the squash and filling.

Into the freezer for the next one!

While your squash is baking, throw some dough together. I put almond flour in here to get it out of my pantry. I feel like something else went in for similar purpose, but I’ve forgotten already. I didn’t measure anything, but rather threw together some ingredients, started kneading it all together, then passed it onto Ross to finish kneading.

He also shaped the dough when it was done rising.

We are baked! You can tell it’s baked if you stick a fork or knife in the side and it passes through to the filling easily.

Like so.

Don’t forget to take your bread out of the oven so it can cool down a bit before you nom it!

Dinner! We cut this into quarters, because it’s 4 large/dense servings. Nom away, and we hope you enjoy it!