Pumpkin stuffed with honey & walnut rice

Wintertime is a great time for baked yummy food. This is a very scrummy little pumpkin dish that makes the whole house smell yummy while it bakes.

I like the sweetness and savouriness of the rice - in my opinion it complements the pumpkin really well. I used two small pumpkins but you could do a larger one (like a butternut) - it'd just take longer to cook, and require more stuffing! The recipe is for 2 small pumpkins.

Pumpkin stuffed with Honey and Walnut rice

2 small pumpkins (1 person sized lol)
3 cups cooked rice

1 onion finely diced
3/4 cup walnuts
1 clove garlic
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 pinch salt
5-6 tbs honey (to taste)

Place walnuts, garlic, spices, and salt into a mortar and pestle and grind until a rough powder. Some chunks of walnut are nice for texture so don't grind it down too much.

Mix rice, onion, and the spice mix with honey.

Wash the pumpkin skins (wipe over with water, and then dry off).

Cut the tops off the pumpkins and scoop out the seeds. Place the stuffing into the pumpkins, put the tops back on. Place in a baking dish.

Bake at 180 degrees C for about 45-55minutes or until the pumpkins are soft. Serve as they are - the whole lot is eaten skin and all. YUMMY.

You can also serve with a smidgen of sour cream or with a drizzle of a warm honey soy dressing - but I like it straight from the oven ;)

Note: Instead of just rice you can use 1 & 1/2 cups rice and 1& 1/2 browned mince - lamb mince works beautifully, but beef mince is also fine.