Whole Roasted Pumpkin with Green Beans and Red Curry Rice

I’m always looking for things to stuff inside a pumpkin. When I came across this Food & Wine recipe and had all the ingredients except the pumpkin, I knew I had to make it. I altered the original recipe a bit because I couldn’t find a long island cheese pumpkin. I used the same proportions but since my pumpkin was smaller I had to bake 1/3 of it in a separate glass dish at same time.

Ingredients

1 pie pumpkin

1 cup uncooked jasmine rice

1 (15 oz) can full fat coconut milk

1 (4 oz) can red curry paste

2 cups green beans, cut into small pieces

1/2 Tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp salt, and more to taste

Garnish - fresh cilantro and mint

What To Do

Preheat oven to 350*. Using small sharp knife cut 4 inch cirlce around pumpkin’s stem. Cut off any stringy membrane attached to top; set aside. Use large spoon to scrape and remove seeds and stringy membrane from inside pumpkin.

Set pumpkin in a glass dish sprayed with oil. Add rice, coconut milk, 1/4 cup water, and curry paste in a large bowl; stir to dissolve curry paste. Ladle about 2/3 into pumpkin (remember you’re going to need space for 1 cup of green beans). Place top on pumpkin. Ladle the other 1/3 into a separate glass dish.

Bake pumpkin and smaller glass dish in preheated oven until filling is ubbling, about 1 hour. Carefully remove top, and stir in green beans, fish sauce, an salt to taste. Replace top, and bake at 350* until pumpkin flesh and green beans are fork-tender and rice has a risotto-like texture, 45 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes; taste and adjust seasoning wih salt or fish sauce. Scoop rice and tender pumpkin into bolws, and top with cilantro and mint.