Ingredients:

  • 1 sweet cooking pumpkin (medium sized)
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 2 potatoes, diced
  • 1 pepper (green or red), diced
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 zucchini, diced
  • 1 C red quinoa
  • Olive oil
  • 2 cloves crushed garlic
  • Seasonings according to your preference

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Cut top off pumpkin and clean the inside. Cover and cook alone for about 20 minutes.
  2. While pumpkin cooks, sauté the vegetables and garlic in the olive oil on low heat until soft. In a saucepan, bring to a boil with enough water to cover the vegetables. Add more water according to the consistency you desire.
  3. Add the grain, spices and veggies to the boiling water. Stir well and transfer all ingredients to the pumpkin.
  4. Cook another 30-40 minutes or until pumpkin shell is tender and grain is cooked.
  5. Serve straight from the pumpkin, scraping the meat from the inside shell when serving. Set the pumpkin on a glass pie dish while in the oven to serve. When full it may be heavy and soggy, so support base properly when transferring. Makes approximately 10 servings.

Cooking Instructions:

  1. Measure out the dry quinoa. After cooking, 1 cup of dried quinoa will expand to about 3 cups of quinoa.
  2. Rinse the quinoa well under cold water in a fine mesh sieve (the seeds/grains are quite small). Put the quinoa in a saucepan and add cold water. Use 2 cups of water for every cup of quinoa. Add a pinch of salt.
  3. Cover and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts to boil, turn the heat down to a simmer. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. The quinoa should look slightly translucent when it’s cooked.
  4. If the quinoa is tender but there is excess water in the bottom of the saucepan, take the lid off until the water evaporates. When done, turn off the heat and put the lid on and let sit for 5 minutes.
  5. Use a fork to fluff up the quinoa and serve.