This sweet Cranberry Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash is the perfect harvest inspired side dish. The pecans make for a nice crunchy topping!
I’m not a big traditional holiday foodie. I get caught up in the complicated, the otherworldly, the exciting.
It’s not always easy. One year I made a lentil stuffing recipe I found somewhere in the thick of the interwebs.
Let’s not go there. I’ll just tell you that it was decidedly not stuffing.
(This is stuffing. And a damn fine one, if I dare say so myself.)
Another year we had spicy shrimp pasta for our Christmas dinner and while it was nice when we were single, it definitely didn’t work for when we had kids and wanted to start writing our family’s story.
I’m still big on special occasion food you won’t find in a recipe book from 1954 (dare I say it? Sometimes I feel like that’s exactly what Pinterest has become.)
Remove the canned condensed cream soups from your special dinners, people. Remove. Them.
One of my current favorites is a lentil and walnut stuffed sweet potato. It is heavenly.
Definitely fit for any vegan or vegetarian guests at any kind of dinner party during the cold fall and winter months.
Though apart from the sweet potato and nuts, there’s not much that’s traditional about it.
But I can also wear my basic mask loud and proud (like when I make Harvest Wild Rice Salad), so I decided to make some cranberry apple stuffed acorn squash with pretty mainstream winter flavors, too.
You need to find the absolutely best tasting acorn squash for this recipe – it is obviously very prominent here.
You’ll bake the squash separately at first while you cook the filling.
That filling… I’m telling you. Heavy with all the basic vibes: brown sugar, cranberries, cinnamon, apples, pecans… But it is so good.
Even to a person like myself who prides herself in being different. See, I’m so different, I’m mainstream again. #winning
Forget about the otherworldly lentil stuffing this year. Make some hashtag basic Cranberry Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash and bathe in all it’s Pinteresty glory.
Don’t worry, you’ll love it. And if it seems too regular to you, you can always make some Garlic Herb Goat Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms as an appetizer and be proud of your edgy self.
Go you.
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Cranberry Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Acorn Squash halved and seeded, do not peel
- 1/2 cup Apple Juice
- 3 tablespoons Brown Sugar packed
- 4 tablespoons Dried Cranberries
- 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
- pinch of Nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water or apple juice to make a slurry
- 2 tablespoons Butter
- 2 Apple peeled, cored and chopped
- 3 tablespoons Chopped Pecans
Instructions
- Bake the squash: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a rimmed cookie sheet. Place the acorn squash halves cut-side down on the prepared sheet and bake for 30 minutes.
- Make the filling: Combine apple juice, brown sugar, dried cranberries, spices and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook until the dried cranberries look plump and are softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and simmer until sauce has thickened, about 1 minute. Stir in the butter. Stir in the apples and pecans. Set aside.
- Fill the squash: Carefully turn the baked squash over and fill with the fruit and nut mixture. Bake for about another 15 minutes or until the squash is soft all the way through.