My Family’s Favorite Vegetarian Pumpkin Recipe for Thanksgiving. Photo

• Ghapama, a traditional Armenian recipe to stuff a pumpkin on holidays, is known as.
• You will need a medium-sized pumpkin and rice.
• This recipe takes just 75 minutes and is full of buttery rice, sweet fruits, and delicious bites.

I was excited to share my family’s Thanksgiving recipe for ghapama (a rice-filled, baked pumpkin).

It brings back memories of family dinners around the dinner table. And it was so easy to make.

Here’s how:

I first washed and prepared the ingredients

Although the traditional Armenian dish is customizable, I chose to use a recipe that called for pumpkin, nuts and dried fruits.

I began by washing the pumpkin and cutting a star in the center. Then, I scraped out the seeds using a spoon.

My pumpkin was so small that my spoon didn’t fit through the hole, so I decided to create a square shape.

I pulled the seeds out of the stringy innards with my hands. I recommend saving the seeds for later roasting.

After scraping everything from the pumpkin, I rinsed it out and dried it.

Stuffing is primarily made with rice

For the filling, I filled a saucepan with 3 cups of water and 1 ½ cups of rice. The mixture was stirred together, then I turned down the heat and let it simmer on low for 15 minutes while I cleaned and washed my pumpkin seeds.

It is important to not let the rice boil. The rice will become softened in the pumpkin.

I added chopped nuts and fruits to the rice

After the rice cooked for a bit, I mixed ¼ cup of cranberries, ¼ cup of dried apricots, and ¼ cup of pine nuts into a large bowl. You can also add plums, cherries or walnuts to this recipe.

Rice becomes very sweet after a while so I recommend adding more nuts to the rice.

I added butter, cinnamon, salt, and honey to the mixture. It smelled wonderful and filled my whole kitchen with warm, fragrant aromas.

I realized that I had cooked too much rice to make my pumpkin. I saved it for another time.

I filled the pumpkin up with rice and hot water.

I loosely spooned the rice into the pumpkin, making sure to leave some room for ¼ cup of hot water.

It was a complicated process that took only a few minutes.

To bake the pumpkin, it takes approximately an hour

Once the pumpkin was full, I added the stem to the top of the rice. Then, I turned on the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. My oven rack was also adjusted to ensure that the pumpkin had enough space.

It was baked in foil for about an hour.

The last pumpkin was delicious, warm and buttery.

It smelled of cinnamon, sweet apricots, and rice. After the rice had cooled for 10 min, I couldn’t resist eating it.

It was amazing to taste honey and cinnamon. It balanced the crunchy pine nuts with the savory rice.

I served the dish in a large bowl by removing the pumpkin from the bowl. Then, I cut the pumpkin into small wedges so the fruits and rice could flow through.

Although I thought it was a complex recipe, it actually only required seven steps.

This recipe would be great in a bigger pumpkin or squash. The rice is great on its own, but it would be delicious with ground beef filling.