STUFFED ACORN SQUASH + WILD RICE MEDLEY
Stuffed Acorn Squash + Wild Rice Medley features tender roasted squash stuffed with wild rice, mushrooms, spinach, red bell pepper and white beans for a delicious fall inspired meal!
Perfect for both casual or elegant dining, stuffed squash makes a colorful centerpiece for the dining or buffet table. Hearty and filling, this is a completely satisfying meal with a good nutritional profile.
Serve by itself or with a small green salad tossed in a light vinaigrette on the side. Or serve with green beans, roasted red potatoes or mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy for the ultimate full spread!
And to top it all off, you just have to love eating out of an acorn squash – it’s pretty fun!
So without further ado, let’s get to the good stuff!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here’s a quick look at the ingredients used in this stuffed squash recipe. Plus, you’ll find substitution ideas for a few of the ingredients.
- Acorn Squash – Look for acorn squash that are uniform in size.
- Wild Rice – Use a wild rice, a wild rice mix (pictured above) or a combo of wild rice and long grain brown rice (which I used).
- Red Bell Pepper – Any color bell pepper will work, but the red adds a nice contrasting pop of color.
- Mushrooms – Use your favorite mushrooms. I used baby bellas here.
- Spinach – Change it up with baby kale, chard or a combo. You can also rough chop large leafy spinach if you like.
- White Beans – Cannellini, great northern or chickpeas will all work great in this recipe.
- Onion – Feel free to substitute with a large shallot.
- Garlic – If you don’t have fresh garlic on hand, add 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of garlic powder.
- Thyme – Fresh or dried.
- Red Pepper Flakes – I like adding a bit of pepper flakes for a kick of heat. Feel free to adjust or omit the amount to suit your taste.
How To Make Stuffed Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Medley
This stuffed acorn squash recipe is not too hard to put together. It does take three separate cooking sections, but comes together pretty smoothly. All in all it’s fairly easy, the rice and squash cook themselves, so the vegetables are the only real work, which isn’t much.
- Cut squash and remove seeds. Start by slicing your acorn squash and scraping out the seeds. The seeds scrape out very easily with a sharper edged spoon or tablespoon measuring spoon.
- To oil or not? Here you can either brush your acorn squash with a little olive oil or not. I go either way as I don’t find it makes too much of a difference, so it just depends on how I’m feeling if I want to add extra oil to the meal. You can also roast the squash cut side down to keep it moist.
- Season and roast the acorn squash. Sprinkle with fresh or dried thyme leaves, mineral salt and pepper. You can even add a few fresh thyme sprigs inside each squash, just remove before eating. Bake the acorn squash until fork tender.
- Make the wild rice medley. Cook your rice and set aside. Saute your vegetables and add in the rice once done.
- Stuff and serve. Fill your acorn squashes with the wild rice medley and serve!
Can You Eat Acorn Squash Skin?
Yes! Once roasted the skin becomes tender and is perfectly good to eat. In fact, it’s full of vitamins and fiber, and I highly recommend it! But if you prefer, just scoop the flesh let the skin be a bowl.
How To Store Leftovers
- Refrigerator: Leftovers will keep for 4 – 5 days in the refrigerator, stored in a covered container. It makes a great meal prep for using these multi-use glass containers (affiliate link).
- Freezer: Stuffed squash freezes well for up to 2 – 3 months. Use freezer safe containers (like the ones mentioned above) or baggies to keep it from getting freezer burn. Let thaw before reheating.
- Reheat: Re-warm stuffed squash in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 – 15, until warmed through. You can also zap them for a few minutes, checking for doneness every 30 seconds.
- Make ahead: You can easily make the your stuffed acorn squashes ahead of time and keep stored, covered, in the refrigerator. Simply reheat before serving.
More Recipes You’ll Love
- Stuffed Winter Squash
- Roasted Butternut Squash Salad
- Vegan Pumpkin Soup
- Spaghetti Squash + Italian Bean Balls
- See all winter squash recipes on TSV!
If you try this stuffed acorn squash recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment and rate it below. I love to hear what you think, or any changes you make.
PrintSTUFFED ACORN SQUASH + WILD RICE MEDLEY
Festive and fun, stuffed acorn squash features wild rice, beans and mix of vegetables. Great for casual dining and makes a great center piece for any gathering!
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 45 min
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6
- Category: Entree
- Method: Oven, Stovetop
- Cuisine: Vegan
Ingredients
- 3 acorn squashes, cut in half lengthwise and seeds removed
- olive oil (to roast oil-free see notes)
- 1 teaspoon thyme, divided
- sea salt
Wild Rice Medley
- 1 cup wild rice, dry (I used half black wild rice and half long grain brown rice)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or 1/4 cup water
- 1 medium/large red bell pepper, diced
- 1 small onion or 1 large shallot, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 oz. mushrooms (about 2 cups), sliced
- 2 large handfuls baby spinach (baby kale or chard is great too, or a combo)
- 1 can cannellini beans (15 oz), drained and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon thyme (dried or fresh)
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
- sea salt and cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or silicone mat. In an ovenproof saucepan, fill halfway with water and place on the bottom rack (this will give a little steam to your squash).
Prep and roast the squash: Cut and seed your squash, place on baking sheet with cut side up. Brush each half with a little oil, and season with a sprinkle of thyme, salt and pepper. Place in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, until tender, knife should easily pierce the flesh. If by chance your squash is done first, cover with foil to keep it from drying out.
Rice: Cook your rice according to package directions. Wild rice will take about the same time as the squash to cook, about 40-45 min. Set aside.
Veggies: In large pan, heat oil on medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes, add garlic and cook 1 minutes. Add the mushrooms, bell peppers, thyme, red pepper flakes, a few twists of salt and pepper, cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the mushrooms start to sweat and soften. Add the beans and leafy greens, stir frequently until they are wilted and warmed through (you may also want to use a cover in between stirring to help soften the greens).
Wild Rice Medley: Combine the rice and sautéed vegetables in the larger of the two pots. Taste for seasoning adding additional salt and pepper as needed.
Stuff: Scoop mixture into each acorn squash half and serve with any additional seasonings. I actually like to top mine with some sriracha for that extra heat and flavor I love so much. :)
Serves 6 (or 3 for the hearty eaters).
Store: Leftovers can be kept in an airtight container in fridge for up to 4 – 5 days.
Notes
Quinoa or quinoa/rice combo would be great too and add even more protein per serving.
To make this oil free, omit the oil when roasting the squash and roast the squash cut side down to keep the moisture in. You can still add a little salt and pepper, and place a sprig of thyme underneath so the flavor with infuse the squash a little. Use water in place of oil when sauteing the vegetables.
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT: I love my Silpat or these parchment liners for lining this rimmed baking sheet (affiliate links).
Updated: Stuffed Acorn Squash & Wild Rice Medley originally published October 2012 and has been updated November 2019 with new photos and helpful tips. Recipe is still as good as ever, enjoy!
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This looks fabulous! Could you do all the prep work and then assemble and warm in the oven? Also – do you have a great salad recommendation to accompany this meal?
Yes, that should be fine. After assembly, warm in an oven preheated to 350 degrees, for about 15 minutes or so.
I would try pairing it with the Kale, Date & Almond Salad.
Enjoy! :)
Thank You! I am so glad I found your site!
Delicious ! I ended up eating both halves lol ! I added a little curry to the rice + a little chopped apple, the flavor was wow – salad after & I was ready for bed at 10pm, slept right through, I’m sold ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I always do the same thing too. I can’t eat just one half. lol I love the addition of curry and apple…delicious! Cheers :)
Well, as said above, I also recently watched Forks over Knives and it really hit a nerve. As an animal lover, I have struggled for years with enjoying meat, however, as I get older I find I have annoying complaints and have wondered if it was my lifestyle, 4 days ago I decided to try vegetables and some dairy (eggs & fish), the world of meatless eating is overwhelming and confusing, and I definitely agree easy steps to start with, and after just a few days I am feeling so much better, I am loving fruit again, big salads, it seems my taste buds are alive, my indigestion has gone and I am sleeping all night long (as opposed to 3.4 hours)…. if I feel this better after just a few days, then I can’t imagine going back…. I found Acorn squash yesterday, and had no recipe…. so I will make this today, and I do believe it will be a treat. Thank you for posting this, and I will be searching for more recipes, hopefully you’ll have some for me :) Thank you again……
I have made this several times. It is the ultimate comfort food. I really love this recipe and almost cried when your site went down/changed and I couldn’t find it anymore! Thanks for such an amazing recipe!
Hi Poe, I’m so glad you found this recipe and I hope if you use it works perfectly! It’s delicious! Hmmm, that is strange about the site. I’ve redirected my old blogger so I’m not sure what you’re seeing. The thing I’m having trouble with is the blogger redirect message…it’s very bothersome to say the least. Thank you for the message and I’ll look into it. Cheers and happy holidays! :)
It was great!
So glad you liked it! Cheers :)
This looks great, although I don't think I've ever seen acorn squash on sale in the uk. Would butternut squash work? Thanks x
You can use delicata squash and butternut squash. You may even like to peel, cube and bake your butternut squash instead of prepping the squash as instructed. Mix the squash in with the medley if you like. Give it try however you do it…all the fall/winter squashes will work well with the rice medley! Would love to know how it goes for you. Enjoy
Thank you so much for this great recipe. First day going vegan and this was such a hit for my first vegan dinner. YUM!
Great! That's what it's all about for me…helping other's enjoy plant based foods. I'm so glad this was your first vegan dinner…I am honored that you chose this one. Made my day with your comment. Thank you for taking a moment to share. Happy New Year's! :)
omg I just made this and it is so freaking good! I replaced the beans with carrots because I was feeling carrot-y haha thanks for the recipe!
Yay! I'm so glad you liked it. Carrots sound like they'd be great in this. The leftovers will be delicious too if you have any. Happy day :)
What a beautiful recipe! Such an original say to serve a squash :)
Thank you Lysa! :)