You guys, Thanksgiving is right around the corner! And if you’ve been looking for a vegetarian (or vegan) main dish for Thanksgiving, this one is for you. And if you just want a show-stopping Autumn-inspired dish for any other day of the week, this one is for you, too. ;) This Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash is is colorful, flavorful, full of texture, and just as delicious as it is beautiful. It’s definitely a new favorite that I’m going to be making every year going forward!
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Make it Vegan
The recipe as written below is vegetarian because it does include butter. To make this recipe vegan, simply swap the butter with a vegan butter substitute or your favorite cooking oil. I do feel like the butter adds some extra richness because of the butter cream, so a vegan butter substitute will probably be the closest flavor match.
Swap out the Wild Rice Blend
I used Lundberg Wild Rice Blend, but if that is not available in your area or you want to swap it out for other reasons, it can easily be swapped out for any grain or grain mix that you like. Just cook your grain according to the package directions, using broth in place of water for extra flavor, as I did below. Then simply add the cooked grain into the recipe at the same point I added the cooked wild rice blend.
How Do You Eat Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash?
Sure, these stuffed acorn squash are pretty, but how do you eat them?? Just dig in with a fork, grabbing some of the baked acorn squash flesh on each forkful with the filling. Think of it kind of like eating a stuffed baked potato. And while acorn squash skin is edible, it can be quite tough, so I usually just scoop everything out of the skin and leave the shell of skin behind. :)
Can This Be Prepared Ahead?
You can prepare the wild rice filling ahead of time, and then bake the acorn squash, stuff it, and finish baking the day it will be served. I think it’s best to roast the squash the day of instead of fully baking and assembling the day before because it will take just as long to reheat the stuffed squash in the oven as it would to just bake it fresh. But you can save time by preparing the filling the day before. The color of the filling may dull a bit when prepared ahead, but the flavor should still be just as delicious!
Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash
Servings 4Ingredients
Roasted Acorn Squash
- 2 acorn squash (3 lbs. total) ($3.01)
- ⅛ tsp salt ($0.01)
- ⅛ tsp pepper ($0.01)
Wild Rice Stuffing
- ½ cup wild rice blend (uncooked) ($0.72)
- 1 cup vegetable broth ($0.13)
- 2 Tbsp butter* ($0.28)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 3 ribs celery ($0.32)
- 1 apple ($0.70)
- ½ tsp dried sage ($0.05)
- ½ tsp dried thyme ($0.05)
- ¼ tsp salt ($0.02)
- ¼ tsp pepper ($0.02)
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts ($0.30)
- ¼ cup dried cranberries ($0.22)
- 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley ($0.05)
Instructions
- Combine the wild rice blend and vegetable broth in a pot. Place a lid on the pot and bring the broth up to a boil over high heat. Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to low, and let the rice simmer for 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Cut each acorn squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Season the cut side of each squash with a pinch of salt and pepper. Place the squash on a parchment lined baking sheet, cut side down. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
- While the rice is cooking and squash is baking, begin the rest of the filling. Dice an onion and add it to a deep skillet with the butter. Sauté the onion over medium heat until soft. While the onion is sautéing, finely chop the celery. Add the celery to the skillet and continue to sauté for a few minutes more.
- Core and dice the apple, then add it to the skillet, along with the sage, thyme, salt, and pepper. Continue to sauté for a few minutes more, or just until the apple is slightly softened.
- When the wild rice is finished cooking, add it to the skillet with the onion, celery, and apples. Also add the walnuts, cranberries, and chopped parsley. Stir to combine.
- Turn the acorn squash over so the cut side is facing up (you can either leave them on the baking sheet or place them in a casserole dish). Fill the cavities in the squash with the wild rice mixture. Return the stuffed squash to the oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Serve hot.
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Equipment
- Enamelware Sheet Pan
- Parchment Paper
- Chef’s Knife
- White Cutting Boards
Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash – Step by Step Photos
Begin cooking the wild rice blend first because it takes the longest. You can use a different grain if you prefer. To cook this Wild rice blend, combine ½ cup of the rice blend with 1 cup vegetable broth. Place a lid on top, bring it up to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low and let simmer for 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Cut two acorn squash in half, lengthwise, then scoop out the seeds with a spoon.
Place the acorn squash on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Season the cut sides of the acorn squash with a small pinch of salt and pepper. Turn the squash over so it is cut side down, then transfer to the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.
After roasting for 20 minutes the squash will be mostly tender, but it will be baked again once stuffed to finish it off. While the acorn squash is roasting, begin making the rest of the filling…
Dice an onion and add it to a deep skillet with 2 Tbsp butter. Sauté over medium heat until the onion is soft.
While the onion is sautéing, finely dice 3 ribs celery. Add them to the skillet and continue to sauté.
While the onion and celery are sautéing, core and dice an apple. Add the apple to the skillet along with ½ tsp dried sage, ½ tsp dried thyme, ¼ tsp salt, and ¼ tsp pepper. Continue to sauté just a few minute more or just until the apple begins to soften.
When the wild rice blend is finished cooking, add it to the skillet, along with ¼ cup chopped walnuts, ¼ cup dried cranberries, and about 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley. Stir to combine.
And then you have the finished stuffing. It’s so colorful, has so much texture, and it is SO DELICIOUS. Give it a taste and adjust the salt to your taste buds.
Finally, turn the squash over so they are cut side up (you can transfer to a casserole dish if you’d like, or leave them on the baking sheet) and stuff the cavities with the wild rice mixture. Bake the stuffed acorn squash for an additional 20 minutes, then serve.
Made this for Christmas dinner main for Vegetarian and side for the Meat Eaters. Followed recipe exactly, including the specified brand of wild rice blend and using Better than Bouillon vegetable stock. It was absolutely delicious and I am putting it in rotation! It is difficult to find a Vegetarian dish that “looks” and “feels” like a main dish, but this definitely does.
The only modification I would make next time is to roast the acorn squash face down for longer before stuffing. They were not quite soft enough, so had to leave them in the oven longer with stuffing. Still, fantastic!
Nov 2024: This recipe is outstanding. I added corn kernels (cut off a fresh husk of corn), cubes of fresh butternut squash, pine nuts, and substituted Penzeys Bouquet Garni for the sage+thyme (because my local grocery store had run out of fresh sage). Wow — the flavors are delicate, warm, and very appetizing. The stuffing is delicious on its own and I might even skip the wild rice next time.
I just bought my first acorn squash of the season – will be making this tomorrow for dinner. Sounds delicious
Great acorn squash stuffed with wild rice. Very easy to make.
Looking forward to more recipes.
Merry Christmas.
I really enjoyed this, and I made a few changes to suit my needs. To increase the protein content, I added a can of (drained, rinsed, patted-dry, shallow-fried, salted) chickpeas. Since I had them, I used a chopped handful of a homemade spiced nut mix instead of walnuts. And, I used a few fresh cranberries instead of dried ones. The result was tasty, and I enjoyed the process as well. Thanks.
We added ginger, and it made the recipe totally pop!
Hubby is allergic to Walnuts would pecans or pine nuts be a good substitute? I however love Walnuts! Lol
Yes, both of those would work well. :)
Has anyone tried doing the squash roasting parts in an air fryer? Did you temp or time modify if so?
Very good but I felt like the squash could’ve used some more love. Maybe a bit of oil or butter before roasting or stuffing. Other than that, a very good dish! Makes a great vegetarian dinner!
The recipe is good, but what year are these prices from lol
1953?
I am making this tonight for some friends and I’m so excited! I’ve got some ground venison that needs to get used, so I’ll add some to the stuffing too. I know it’s going to turn out amazing🤤
Can I add meat to this? Such as sweet Italian sausage.
Love this recipe..I make 1 wwith diced cooked meat like ham or chicken/ turkey for my husband and 1without meat for my vegetarian son. I like it either way. No celery substitute diced sweet red pepper. I also use garlic infused olive oil instead of separate garlic and oil.
A splendid recipe! I used the filling “straight “ as a side with fresh salmon. A few changes. 1. I used raisins which I soaked briefly in boiling water to soften them and add a touch of flavored moisture. 2. A tablespoon or two of dry vermouth used at end of step 3 deglazes the pan and cuts the raisins’ sweetness. 3. I increased thyme, because I like it and again to tame the raisins. I’m going to try freezing some for my solitary meals. Have you tried adding eggs to make patties or latkes?…. (PS: I’m 82, so I remember quite a history of foods and chefs. When Julia Child landed in USA, people protested her frequent use of wine, saying it was expensive and didn’t keep. She responded that dry vermouth is very close to fine French wines, is inexpensive, and lasts indefinitely. That was the 1960’s, and dry vermouth is still a fixture in my pantry!!)
This was so good! We made ours in kabocha squashes, which took a little bit longer to cook, but the flavors were spot-on. We’ll definitely be making again in the future!
This is such a great recipe! I’ve made it several times and it’s great on its own with a green salad on the side.
The recipe is pretty flexible. Once I had a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach leftover from another recipe, so I chopped that up, along with a pear instead of an apple. On another occasion, I had a link of Italian turkey sausage to use up, so I removed the casing and cooked it with the onions. It’s nice to have a base recipe that stands up to tweaks based on what’s left in my fridge.
This recipe is delicious! I did add a small amount of pure maple syrup on top after the bake, and that added just a bit of sweetness
Wow! This looks fantastic! Thank you for sharing. I don’t want to wait for Turkey day to enjoy this.
Any ideas to substitute the walnuts if allergic to nuts?
Pepitas would be nice!
This was really good, but feels more like a side dish than a main course
My family loves this recipe.Great combination of savory and sweet.Easy to make.Thanks for sharing.
This is fantastic! I used farro instead of rice and added TVP rehydrated in veg stock to the skillet before stuffing the squash. Even the non-vegan was happy!
10 minutes in the micro wave is just as effective as oven. I use the acorn squash as a bowl. Cut a small slice off the bottom as to make the squash sit on its own. Then I cut the top of the acorn squash as to use like a lid. Then prepare what ever your wanting to stuff it with, replace the top and then either bake or put in the micro wave.
WOW!!!! I have been looking at this recipe for years and just now got around to trying it. We changed a couple of things. Dried bing cherries because the only dried cranberries I could find had added sugar. We used chopped pecans rather than walnuts because it’s what we had on hand. The apples and cherries worked so great with the flavor of the celery, onion, thyme and sage. My husband suggested a drizzle of balsamic reduction at the end and it really made the flavors pop. My only regret is that we didn’t make this sooner. It was amazing! Thanks, Beth!
When I made this the first time, I followed the recipe perfectly, and while the flavors were delicious, I wasn’t a big fan of having to scoop the squash out, and I found the squash a bit too soft and sweet when cooked this way, and too hard to “distribute” with everything else. I made this again, but I sliced the squash thin and roasted it until each piece was slightly crispy. Then I mixed the slices in a casserole dish with the filling, roasted a bit longer, and served. It was like all the flavors of fall in one dish.
Very good, although I must confess I made it with some chicken added. I don’t like dark meat, and struggle to find uses for it when I get one of those roasted chickens. I added some chopped up chicken right after the apple. I’m sure it doesn’t need the chicken though, very tasty.
Good recipe! My husband and I devoured the rice filling and still enjoyed the acorn squash. I think you could make it either way. It looks nice as accompaniment to the acorn squash or you could make the rice as a side. Either way. Yummy!
Okay wow. I just made this and my husband and I devoured it. Perfect ratios on everything. I *thought* that I would have too much of the wild rice mix for the amount of acorn squash that I had, but as we ate we kept adding the leftover rice mix and it was perfect.
If you have any vegan/vegetarian/plant-based friends (heck any diet) that you want to wow make this!
This looks so good!! I can’t wait to make it. I’ll for sure make it vegetarian, but may also try adding sausage or bacon to the stuffing at some point :)
This recipe is so good! Very different from anything I’d tried before, and a lovely vegetarian centerpiece for a meal. Like others, I found my squash needed a little more time in the oven. Next time I would consider adding even more onion, celery and spices (I like strongly flavored foods). This will be an addition to my regular dinner lineup for sure!
I have a family of big eaters so I doubled this for our family of four but this is a hardy recipe and with a side salad a single recipe would have been plenty. I made it as directed and we garnished it with a little goat cheese–well-received. Thanks for sharing.
This was so good. Had to roast them a little longer, but the flavors were perfect. Definitely my favorite stuffed squash recipe so far.
Made this as the entree for a vegan Thanksgiving. The wild rice stuffing is delicious and savory, and is a nice complement to the sweetness of the squash. I did roast the halves for 30 minutes, stuffed them (made the stuffing the night before) and returned to the oven for another 15 minutes. These are so good! Thank you for this recipe.
Simply delicious! In my vegetarian house, we strive to eat as healthy as possible, but still eat delicious filling food. These squash are wonderful! My kids and husband all love them. Thank you Beth!
Could the rice blend be made using a rice cooker? Thanks!
Yes :) Just make sure to do it in broth, just as I did on the stove top. A lot of flavor comes from the broth.
Cooked in the rice cooker using chicken broth and it worked perfectly! Wonderful recipe! Thanks for publishing!
Thus was yummy and has nice fall flavors. I agree that the squash needs a longer cooking time. Perhaps as much as an hour total baking time, depending on the size. Def better to cook it a little long than not enough.
Ooh I am so excited to make this? What kind of apple did you use? Does it matter?
I would use something that’s kind of sweet, and maybe a little bit tart, like Gala or Honey Grisp. I wouldn’t goo full tart like Granny Smith, or full sweet like red delicious. :) I think this was a Gala… but I’d need to double check.
This looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it!
I’ve had problems with larger acorn squash cooking in that amount of time. I might suggest giving yourself a little extra time if they aren’t quite done. Nothing worse than eating an undercooked acorn squash.
Hey Beth! Do you think you could make the filling in an instant pot? I feel like it’s doable just not sure where to start. Any recommendations?
Hmmm, I think you’d need to do it in two separate steps, like the rice and vegetables are done here. The issue is that the rice takes so long to cook that you really need to do it separately from the vegetables so they don’t overcook. So the best method I can think of is to first cook the rice using the IP (whatever setting/time IP suggests for wild rice), then empty that out of the IP and do all of the steps that are listed for the skillet using the sauté function. But at that point you might as well be doing that on the stove *while* the rice is cooking in the IP to save time.
This looks incredible and I’m so excited to try it. Thank you so much for featuring an awesome vegetarian holiday main!
This is one that I will be making soon
This looks so amazing, I can’t wait to try it!
This looks amazing! I’m allergic to celery – do you have any suggestions for an appropriate substitute? Thanks!
You can just leave it out. I wouldn’t worry about substituting it with anything. :)
I think chopped water chestnuts would be a great substitute for celery. It would add a nice texture.
I often use swiss chard ribs to sub for celery. I dice the ribs and freeze them when I make something with the chard leaves.