Stuffed roast pumpkin with haloumi, chorizo and rice recipe
Recipes
Blogged by: Elle Vernon 01 Dec 2017
Did someone say haloumi and chorizo? When those two ingredients combine, it's always a winning combo. This roast pumpkin is filled with rice, quinoa, veggies, chorizo and haloumi, and doesn’t require any fancy equipment or hard to find ingredients to make it. It can also be very easily converted to a vegetarian dish if you leave out the chorizo.

You can serve this pumpkin warm with a traditional lunch or dinner, or alternatively you can serve it cold alongside a cold seafood buffet. WARNING! This side dish might actually steal the show. 
 

Stuffed roast pumpkin with haloumi, chorizo and rice recipe

Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 55 mins
Serves 8-10
 

Ingredients

1 whole medium sized butternut pumpkin (about 1.5kg)
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, plus extra 2 Tbsp.
Sea-salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to season
1 chorizo, finely diced
250g packet microwave rice and quinoa
1 cup baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely grated
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
100g haloumi cheese, diced
¼ cup flaked almonds, toasted
Mint leaves and flat-leaf parsley leaves, to garnish
 

Method

1 Preheat oven to 220°C fan-forced. Line two oven trays with baking paper. Cut pumpkin in half lengthways. Use a spoon to remove the seeds, then discard. Continue to scoop out the flesh leaving a 2cm thick border around the edge of the pumpkin halves, reserving the flesh for later. Transfer halves to one of the oven trays, cut side up. Score the flesh with small knife several times in horizontal lines, without cutting all the way through into the skin. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 30 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, put reserved flesh and chorizo onto the second tray and bake for the final 10 minutes or until chorizo is golden and pumpkin flesh is almost tender.
2 Meanwhile, heat microwave rice following packet directions. Transfer to a large bowl, then stir in spinach, onion, garlic and egg. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in cooked chorizo and pumpkin flesh
3 Spoon mixture into pumpkin halves, scatter with haloumi. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until stuffing is golden brown and pumpkin is tender. Transfer to a large platter, drizzle with extra oil, season with extra pepper, then serve garnished with almonds mint and parsley leaves.

 

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