Stuffed Kabocha Squash

Kabocha is winter squash sometimes called a Japanese pumpkin. It has an exceptional sweet flavor that seems like a cross between pumpkin and sweet potato. I always use chicken sausage as the protein base but vary the fruit that I add for that tiny bit of sweetness.

Here is what I used:

2 kabocha squash

3 uncooked chicken sausage removed from the casing

1 Cup chopped celery

3/4 Cup diced onion

2 T chopped fresh rosemary

3/4 Cup diced granny smith apple

2 T olive oil

3/4 Cup bread crumbs

Here is what I did:

I preheated the over to 390. I cut the ends off of the squash to create a flat surface for the squash to sit on while baked and then cut the squash in half the long way. I scraped out the seeds and then baked it until the inside was soft (about 40 minutes but this will depend on the size of your squash). As the squash cooked I chopped the veggies and preheated a pan. I heated up the olive oil and then sautéed the onion and celery until it was softened. I then added the chicken sausage meat and cooked until it was browned. About halfway through the browning process I added the apple and rosemary. Once that was finished I added the breadcrumbs and stirred it all together. I divided the stuffing mixture amongst the 4 halves of cooked squash and put it back into the oven under the broiler on low.

This can be done ahead of time and assembled right before eating, which I do frequently because of my night time teaching schedule. The squash can seem to be a bit dry if you do it this way so you may want to drizzle some olive oil on top to keep it a bit moist.