Stuffed Pumpkin Rice Recipe: A hearty meal for all the pumpkin lovers

Ingredients

• 2 cups Brown Rice
• Handful Spinach (fresh or frozen)
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tomato
• 2 Green Chilies
• 2 Garlic Clove and a small piece of Ginger (or 1tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste)
• 1 Chicken Stock cube
• Seasoning (salt, black pepper, red chili flakes, 1tbsp lemon juice, and cumin powder)
• Garnish (cilantro/coriander, walnuts, and raisins)

Instructions

1. Rice stuffing: Heat 2tbsp oil, add chopped garlic and ginger, add chopped onions, chopped green chilies and cook until the onions are fragrant and translucent. Add chopped tomato, spinach, salt, 1tsp black pepper, 1tsp cumin powder, 1tbsp lemon juice, 1tbsp red chili flakes, and chicken cubes. Mix all well. Cook for about a minute. Add 2 cups of brown rice, 4 cups of water mixed with 1 Chicken Stock cube, and give all a good stir. Let the rice cook for about 10 minutes or until done
2. Pre-heat the oven at 200c for 10 minutes.
3. Pumpkin: Deesed the pumpkin and remove the slimy portion. Apply a generous amount of oil inside and outside the pumpkin. Stuff the hollow portion of the pumpkin with the above rice mixture. Cover the stuffed pumpkin with foil paper and cook in the oven at 250c for about 25 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft and cooked. Carefully remove the foil.
4. Garnish with walnuts, raisins, and cilantro/coriander. Gently cut into pieces along with the rice portion and serve with your choice of stew or a salad.

Recipe Notes

I bought a pumpkin cut in half from the store. However, you can cook the entire pumpkin by cutting the head and stuffing the entire pumpkin.

Recipe by

Aliya Zanfer