Thanksgiving Solution: Vegan Guests

"Domestic Mortal," you cry, "Vegetarians and vegans are coming to my Thanksgiving dinner and I don't know what to do!" Never fear, kind reader, for I have a solution.

This is a stuffed pumpkin, and it solves the problem of what to serve for a big dinner like Thanksgiving when you have herbivores on your guest list. It's real food, not some sort of processed stuff molded into a meat shape, and it gives you something to carve and present, just as you would with a turkey. It's also just easy and yummy, so you could serve it for any kind of dinner, and the ingredients are extremely flexible, so you could make a meat version if you wanted.

1. Cut around the stem of a pie or sugar pumpkin (don't try to use a Jack-o-lantern pumpkin), and remove the top. Scoop out the seeds, put them in a bowl of water, and separate them from the pulp with your fingers.

Put the seeds on a foil-lined baking sheet, mix with olive oil and salt (or your seasoning of choice) and bake while you're mixing the filling. I set the oven at 375 degrees and baked until golden brown. This took about 20 minutes for me, but times may vary, so keep an eye out.

The filling is a mixture of a bunch of things. I had a pouch of cooked grains from Trader Joe's that wanted to use up, but you could use any kind of cooked rice or grain, or even veggie-friendly stuffing. I looked in the fridge and found some cooked cauliflower and carrots, so I chopped those up and threw them in. I have a lot of dried fruits and nuts on hand all the time, so I added some dried cranberries, chopped dates, and chopped pecans. Half a chopped apple added body and sweetness. Spoon the filling into the pumpkin, and pat it down but don't squash it.

Other ingredient ideas:
cooked wild rice
caramelized onions
chopped pear
fresh herbs
cooked and chopped greens
cubed bread
nuts
whatever looks good!

Put the "cap" back on and bake at 400 degrees for about an hour, or at a lower temperature for longer if you're baking something else at the same time (like the turkey). It's fully cooked when you can slip a knife into the pumpkin. Take it out and tent it with foil to keep it warm until you're ready to serve, and then use a large sharp knife to slice into wedges from top to bottom.

Those seeds we toasted would be a great crunchy topping for the stuffed pumpkin slice, or you could put them out in a bowl before dinner so the herbivores can have a suitable snack while others are grazing on cheese or whatever.

Yum! Done!