Stuffed Acorn Squash Recipe

If you could use a single picture to encapsulate the word "nourishing," it may well be a picture of this stuffed acorn squash. Just think about it for a second: It features kale, fiber-loaded squash and wild rice, hearty Italian sausage, dried fruit, and a delightful blend of onion and spices to balance it all out. Now go ahead and take a bite of this veritable all-in-one meal, and you'll see that it can pretty much sum up "nourishing" in taste, too.

And while you could serve this as a fancy side, it really does an entire meal make. Chef, recipe developer, and registered dietician Kristen Carli says, "I love to eat this dish because it is complete on its own. No extra dishes to wash up." She also touts the health angle, adding: "Acorn squash is a great starchy vegetable to use during winter months. One cup provides almost half your fiber content for the day, and it also has a lot of vitamin C and potassium."

If you can find an acorn squash in other seasons, no reason to relegate this dish to the colder months: It would be as welcome at a summer BBQ as it would on the table during those long wintry nights. Or any other time, of course!

This recipe calls for acorn squash, olive oil, salt, pepper, wild rice, vegetable broth, diced yellow onion, ground mild Italian sausage, kale with the stems removed and leaves chopped, dried cherries, and raisins.

Now, don't be discouraged if acorn squash is not in season or available near you at the time: You can substitute in another similar veggie, or frankly, you can follow the rest of the recipe and make a great meal (or very fancy side) just by following the other steps. Maybe just use a bit more rice a bit to add more starchy goodness in the absence of squash.

The first two steps of this recipe are basically hands-off after the initial prep and take the same amount of time, so tackle them and then get to prepping all of your other ingredients.

Start by preheating the oven to 400 F, then slice each acorn squash in half and scoop out seeds. Now place the halves face-up (scooped-out side up, that is, to be clear) on foil-wrapped baking sheets, and then bake them for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, add rice and vegetable broth. Bring the liquid to a boil, and then immediately lower it to a simmer, cover the pan, and cook the rice for 45 minutes until it is tender.

Once the squash and rice are a bit past the halfway point in their cooking, it's time to get going on the rest of the dish. In a large skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil and onion and sauté until the onion turns translucent, which takes about five minutes. Then add the salt, pepper, and sausage, and break it up with a wooden spoon, cooking until the meat is no longer pink.

Finally for this step, add the de-stemmed and chopped kale on top of sausage and cover the pan with a lid. Let things cook on low for a few minutes until the kale is bright green and slightly wilted. Now stir to combine everything and remove the pan from the heat.

Now is the time to cut the heat under the rice and get the acorn squash out of the oven

Transfer the onion, kale, and sausage mixture from the skillet into a large bowl and then sprinkle in the raisins and dried cherries. Stir to combine everything well, and once the rice is cooked, add it to the mixture and stir to combine everything.

Now scoop the mixture into each halved acorn squash, loading them evenly, and don't worry if you have extra left over, as it can be enjoyed out of a bowl or on a plate just fine. And remember, you may well find yourself preparing the "filling" as its own side or main course even when no acorn squash are available.