Stuffed Mini Pumpkins

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Description

Enjoy stuffed mini pumpkins as a side-dish, a light lunch or main dish. What's more, they're tasty, quick and easy too! Use the recipe base as a guide to your creativity.

Ingredients

• 6 mini pumpkins (Jack-be-Little) washed and dried
• 6 mushrooms finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 12 pre-cooked chestnuts
• 1 tbsp crème fraîche half fat or full fat
• 1 tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley finely chopped
• 6 tbsp cheese (Emmental, Comté, Parmesan, or Cheddar) grated
• 1/4 tsp freshly milled pepper & pinch fleur de sel
• 1/4 tsp ground smoked paprika optional

Instructions

• Prick each mini pumpkin with a fork and cook them on plate in the microwave for 4 minutes. (If you don't have a microwave, then roast them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 200°C/180°C fan/400°F.)
• Set them aside to cool, slice off their tops, then scoop out and discard the middle seedy cavity.
• In a pan, fry the mushrooms, bacon and garlic in a little olive oil for a about a couple of minutes or until cooked.  Take off the heat, adding all the other ingredients and stuff the mixture into each mini pumpkin cavity.

  (At this point, you can set them aside in advance preparation and simply finish them off in the oven before serving.)
• Keeping the tops aside for decoration only, place each stuffed pumpkin on a baking dish and place under the grill for 5-10 minutes.

Notes

If you're not vegetarian, then add a chopped rasher of smoked bacon to each mini pumpkin. 

For vegans: simply replace the cheese and crème fraîche with cooked quinoa or rice and add nuts of your choice for a no-turkey Thanksgiving or Christmas dish.