Dinner in a Pumpkin

This is a fun dinner that the kids will love: soup in a pumpkin! I used beef wild rice soup to fill our pumpkin. Other soups to try might include chicken and rice, navy bean, beef vegetable, or, of course, pumpkin soup.

However, you don't have to limit yourself to soup. I'm thinking casseroles, stews, or chili would cook up just fine in a pumpkin as well. Any casserole that you would bake in a covered casserole dish should work fine in a pumpkin, though you will probably need to cook it longer than usual. You also need a pumpkin large enough to hold your recipe--preferably a pie pumpkin (sugar pumpkin), but a regular pumpkin will work just fine too.

Dinner in a Pumpkin

Ingredients:

1 batch of your favorite soup, stew, or casserole, mixed and ready to be baked
1 large pumpkin

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees F.

2. Cut the top few inches of the pumpkin off. Scoop out the pulp and seeds, being careful to leave the shell in tact.

3. Fill the pumpkin with your soup, stew, or casserole.

4. Pour an inch or two of water into a large casserole dish. Place the filled pumpkin in the dish; put the top of the pumpkin back on. Bake for one to two hours, until the pumpkin flesh is tender and your soup is done.

5. To serve, ladle the soup into bowls, and scrape a chunk of cooked pumpkin flesh out to plop into the bowl with the soup.

Dinner in a pumpkin served with cornbread.

Beef and Wild Rice Soup with a scoop of cooked pumpkin, topped with grated Romano cheese.

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