
Butternut Squash stuffed with Cranberry Rice
A real eye-catcher full of wintery flavours. Roasted butternut squash is delicious by itself but filled with the sweet and nutty flavours of the rice it turns into a festive Christmas meal. Even though there are various steps it is not a difficult recipe to make. You could prepare the squash a day before and then roast it on Christmas day.
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Read this before you start
It’s not a difficult recipe, just give yourself enough time to prepare everything.
Prepare all steps until you put the squash halves in the oven. Keep them in aluminium foil in the fridge.
If you can use an oven at your destination, take with you in aluminium foil.
Necessities
besides regular cooking and frying pans, and cutting knives

Aluminium foil
Ingredients
6 servings
1
75 g
150 g
75 g
30 g
50 g
50 g
Butternut squash
Rice (basmati)
Spinach
Sun-dried tomatoes
Dried cranberries
Dried apricot
Cashews (Johnny Cashew)
1 tea sp
1 tea sp
10 g
1
2 cloves
Cumin
Cinnamon
Fresh thyme
Onion
Garlic
Prep
20 min
- Cut the squash in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and hollow out the squash with a spoon until the squash has a good centimeter of flesh left
- Cut scooped out flesh of the squash finely
- Cut sun-dried tomatoes into small strips
- Cut dried apricot finely
- Dice onion and mince garlic
- Tear thyme leaves from the twigs
- Preheat oven to 180°C
Cook
25 min + 60 min oven

Sauté onion and garlic
~3 min
Add cut squash flesh
let the pumpkin soften ~3 min
Add rice, cumin and 200 ml water
~5 min
Add thyme, sun-dried tomatoes, apricot, cranberries and cashews
mix well
Add spinach
until it has wilted ~3 min
Add cinnamon
season with salt and pepper and mix well
Bring to boil again and add water if needed
add a little (100 ml) more water if rice isn't done yet ~5 min
In the meantime, brush the inside of the squash halves with olive oil
sprinkle with salt and pepper
Fill the squash halves with rice mix
use all filling, don't worry about overfilling
Wrap the squash halves in aluminium foil

Bake squash in the oven
~45 min at 180°C
In the meantime, prepare the salad
Open up the aluminium foil around the squash and put back in the oven
~15 min more at 180°C
Cut each halve in 3 pieces and serve with the salad

Thanks so much for joining our journey. We wish you a Merry Christmas with your loved ones!
As Christmas is often associated with meat, we’re very curious to learn what you and your guests, friends, family think about this meatless menu.
Email us (mareike@forkranger.com) and send us your pictures or tag @forkranger on Instagram.