Whole Pumpkin Cheddar Gratin
Bake this cheesy, savory bread pudding, with sweet apples inside a WHOLE pumpkin: Whole Pumpkin Cheddar Gratin!
I asked myself, “Self, what’s the worst that could happen if I threw my whole pumpkin - uncut into the oven?"
"Maybe, I’d be out the $3.00 I spent at the pumpkin farm?”
"Or maybe it would explode in my oven, covering the oven with slimy seeds and pumpkin 'guts'?"
So I did it. I opened the oven door and stuck the entire pumpkin, uncut, stem-and-all in and closed the door!
When I opened the oven door 1 hour and 20 minutes later, nothing had exploded. And nothing covered the insides of the oven walls. The stem was not black and neither was the pumpkin flesh.
Instead, when I cut open the top and pulled up the ‘lid’ still stuck with seeds, the inside revealed a perfect evenly cooked interior. And the outside was a deep golden orange that would be a gorgeous serving vessel.
Now, this little experiment was not entered into without some prior research. I consulted a few cookbooks for pumpkin soups served in the pumpkin shell. Nothing.
Searching online for any “recipe in pumpkin shell” yielded a few recipes similar to this delicious-looking whole pumpkin apple casserole. But I wanted something savory and cheesy like a gratin or strata. I did find this amazing-looking Pumpkin and Cabot Habanero Cheddar Soufflés recipe to add to my To-Try file. But no whole-pumpkin strata.
In the end, it was the Cabot recipe that gave me a hint that cooking a whole pumpkin might not burn down the house – but I wasn’t positive since the soufflé recipe uses mini pumpkins and my sugar pumpkin was a whopping 11 inches in diameter!
Once my pumpkin was cooked, I created a cheesy, savory gratin with a celery and a little sweet apple. It's a bit like Thanksgiving stuffing, only waaay better!
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Whole Pumpkin Cheddar Gratin
Description
Bake a cheesy, savory bread pudding, with sweet apples inside a WHOLE pumpkin.
Ingredients
- 1 large sugar pumpkin
- 6 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (about 1 ½ cups) I used Cabot
- 2 cups fresh bread cubes (about 4 slices firm white Italian bread, ½-inch cube)
- 1 ½ tablespoon canola oil
- 2 cups chopped onions
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 large apple, peeled, cored, chopped
- 1-1 ½ cup chicken broth, divided
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crumbled
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Place uncut pumpkin in large shallow dish and add ¼ inch of water; cover the whole dish tightly as best you can with foil and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes, or until just tender. Let cool. Then cut off 'lid' and scrape out pumpkin seeds. Cut and scrape pumpkin meat from inside of shell leaving at least ¼ inch shell. Chop pumpkin meat into bite-sized pieces. Place pumpkin shell in the refrigerator to chill while completing remainder of recipe.
- Mix together cheese and breadcrumbs; set aside.
- In large skillet over medium heat, heat oil. Add onions and sugar. Stir often until onions are golden, about 10 minutes. Stir in apple, ½ cup chicken broth, salt, thyme, and pepper, saute until apple is tender, about 4-5 minutes. Add chopped pumpkin, about 1 ½ cup bread-cubes mixture and ½ cup broth; cook, stirring until thoroughly heated through.
- Transfer mixture into cold pumpkin shell and pour ½ cup broth over mixture. Sprinkle remaining bread crumb mixture over top of pumpkin mixture. Cover entire top of pumpkin with foil. Place pumpkin on metal baking sheet (not stoneware! I cracked mine in the heat!) Bake in preheated 350°F oven for 20-25 minutes until heated through. Remove foil and broil until breadcrumbs are golden (being careful not to burn pumpkin shell.) Serve in pumpkin shell.
Wow! This is such a cool idea. Very impressive and looks delish!!
Thanks Danielle. Pumpkin have so many possibilities...am loving all the #RecipeRedux ideas...including your goulash!
Oh my goodness, this looks amazing!!! Congrats on not burning down the house and creating such a fabulous recipe 🙂 Absolutely can't wait to try this out!
Thanks EA! Isn't kitchen research great!
You are a brave women... and I love that it worked!!
Thanks for the Cabot shout outs, too. You know that the farm family owners would be awfully appreciative 😉
Thanks for the vote of confidence. It was really all in fun!
Serena you are seriously funny. You should have called! We roast pumpkin all the time in Oz. My hubby courted me with pumkin soup recipe like this and you scoop out the flesh.....wish he still made it.
You're right! I should've called! And I should have remembered you Aussies are brilliant when it comes to winter squash!
Wow! I'm impressed. Your photos and descriptions are very enticing. I'm going to give this a try soon while pumpkins are still readily available and inexpensive.
Thanks Dr. Barb!
wow i love this idea... isn't it a great feeling when your kitchen experimentation turns out great. Im sure you were thrilled with this one. It's beautiful and spells autumn loud and clear.
Happy Monday!
malou
How adventurous! Great idea to roast the entire pumpkin!!
This looks fabulous! If I don't know what to do with a winter squash I generally roast it. You can't go wrong!
I admire your adventurous spirit! “Self, what’s the worst that could happen?" I'd be too scared of a big pumpkiny mess.
Thanks Teresa! Kitchen experiments are the best kid of science...you can eat the results (usually!)
Can't wait to share this with our Cabot fans!