Turkey stuffed acorn squash with onions, mushrooms, apples, and celery topped with melty parmesan cheese. This recipe has some of my favorite fall flavors and can be a great way to use up some of that leftover Thanksgiving turkey.
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Hi There! Fall cooking has some of my favorite seasonal flavors. Fall meals seem to be more hearty, more rustic and I love it. Acorn squash is one of the flavors I try to cook with ever fall. Along with a few other flavors like, apples and of course turkey.
Most of the time, I stick to the classic brown sugar and butter acorn squash, probably because it is soooo good that way. But being that it is such a versatile squash and I am always looking to try new things, I wanted to make a savory acorn squash recipe.
Thanksgivings has been on my mind, well more specifically Thanksgiving leftovers! Is it weird that I might be just as excited for leftovers as the dinner!? Leftovers are like second Thanksgiving, but usually in your sweatpants which is waaayyy better!
With leftovers on the mind, turkey was the obvious choice to stuff the acorn squash with. I went with ground turkey but you could absolutely use leftover turkey meat. If your family is anything like mine and gets the biggest turkey no matter how many people are coming, you will need more recipes than sandwiches to use up that turkey.
This is a super easy recipe to make and the presentation is beautiful. Most recipes with call for cutting the squash lengthwise, but I think short way across make for a much prettier flower shape.
The flavors are overwhelming, the sweetness from the apples and squash pair perfectly with the savory mushroom, onions and turkey. I’ve never been more excited for leftovers than I am in this moment!
Turkey Stuffed Acorn Squash
Ingredients
- 2 acorn squash
- 1 pound ground turkey or 1 1/2 – 2 cups chopped cooked turkey (like leftovers from Thanksgiving)
- 1/2 cup chopped apples
- 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1-2 stalks celery, chopped
- Grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400°
- Cut acorn squash in half the short way and scoop out all the guts. You can cut them in half the long way also but I think the short way is prettier.
- Brush the squash with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
- Place squash on a baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes or until you can easily pierce with a fork.
- While squash is cooking, saute ground turkey for 5 minutes (if you are using cooked turkey skip this step and add turkey in with the veggies).
- Scoop ground turkey into a bowl and set aside.
- Add onions, celery and cook for 2- 3 minutes, add mushrooms and apples and cook for another 2 minutes (if you are using leftover turkey add it in here).
- Add a tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese and cooked ground turkey and mix thoroughly.
- Spoon mixture into squash until very full, sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top and place in oven.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Yummy ?
Thanks 🙂
This looks great! I can hardly wait to try it.
I made this! It was delicious! And heart healthy. I may learn to enjoy veggies yet!