Stuffed Pumpkin with Seeded Rice and Tahini Yogurt
Serves: 2
Time: 60 mins
This one could easily get used on a night where you are entertaining; it is a pretty simple dish and looks quite stunning. It is so tasty I’ve been daydreaming about having it again.
Leftovers
Originally I had thought that this would be a dinner where you had a quarter for dinner and a quarter for lunch, but it was considerably moreish, and both me and the hubby went back for seconds, leaving just 1 quarter piece in total. So you will need to top lunch with more salad.
What you’ll need
1 large butternut pumpkin
1/2 cup of brown rice
1/2 a bunch of dill
1/4 bunch of flat leaf parsley
3/4 cup of greek yoghurt
100g cranberries
1/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds
1 lemon
2 handfuls of baby rocket
From the Pantry
2 dessert spoons of tahini
olive oil
sea salt
salt and pepper
Optional Xtra for Lunch
1/2 cup of brown rice
use the rest of the rocket
use the rest of the dill
Feeding Four
To make this into a dinner for four I have doubled the rice and you will find xtra sunflowerseeds, and xtra yoghurt. Use up the rest of the rocket and the dill and add more cranberries. Try to pick a larger pumpkin or get two small ones.
Prep and Cook
Preheat Oven to 180c
Roast Pumpkin
Use a clean tea towel to wipe the outside of your pumpkin clean.
Cut in half lengthways and remove the seeds.
Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Place on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Roast in the oven for 60 minutes, or until cooked right through.
Cook Rice
Place the rice in a medium-sized pot with roughly 4 cups of water and a large pinch of salt.
Bring up to the boil and continue to cook till al dente.
Strain once cooked and leave to cool.
Toast Sunflower Seeds
Put on a small oven tray and spray with either olive oil spray or some coconut oil spray and toast in the oven for 7 minutes.
Mix Yogurt
Combine the yogurt with the tahini and juice of the lemon, season with salt and pepper and mix together.
Cranberries
I am using the whole dried cranberry as I like the way they look and they tend to be more sour than the cut variety.
Mix Salad
Roughly chop the flat-leaf parsley leaves and the dill and mix in a bowl with the toasted sunflower seeds, cranberries and rocket.
Once the rice has cooled down, you can add it and mix everything together with some salt and pepper.
Plate it Pretty
Once your pumpkin has cooked you can start to build.
Start with the yogurt, be generous but not to the point where it will run down the sides.
Then use your hands to pile up the rice salad on top (you have more control with your hands, it stacks more prettily)
Visually I quite like the rustic look of this so I served it on the tray it was baked on.
Enjoy!
Lunch tomorrow
We only had enough leftover tonight for 1 person, this is just 1/4 of the pumpkin, so I have bulked it out a bit with the remaining rocket and yogurt.