This Sausage & Mushroom Stuffed Acorn Squash is going to become your new favourite Thanksgiving main – the perfect comfort food!
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How to make this recipe
- While oven is preheating, cut acorn squash into four quarters
- Brush squash with melted butter, brown sugar and spices. Bake in the oven for 30 min.
- Begin making rice in the rice cooker. While rice cooks, chop up mushrooms and mix together turkey sausage ingredients.
- In a hot pan, cook turkey sausage in oil. Add shallots, garlic and mushroom and saute.
- Add beef broth, red wine and balsamic vinegar and simmer.
- Add wild rice and parmesan cheese.
- Remove from heat and stir in sage, thyme, kale, salt and pepper.
- Remove squash from oven when done baking and then add stuffing ingredients.
- Bake squash with stuffing in the oven for 5 min. Serve and enjoy!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Acorn squash – replace the acorn squash with any other squash (ex: butternut squash, spaghetti squash, kabocha squash)
- Butter – olive oil or a neutral oil can be used in place of butter. Feel free to use a plant-based butter alternative as well.
- Brown sugar – honey, maple syrup or agave are great brown sugar alternatives. White refined sugar won't give the same taste that brown sugar does so avoid that.
- Rosemary – sage, basil, oregano or marjoram can be used.
- Thyme – oregano, basil, Italian seasoning or marjoram can be used in place of thyme.
- Salt & pepper (to taste)
Stuffing
- Olive oil – use a neutral oil to substitute olive oil in this recipe. Some neutral oils to use are avocado oil, canola oil or vegetable oil.
- Turkey sausage – chicken sausage or regular pork sausage will also work in this recipe. Use store-bought sausages or see the recipe below.
- Shallots – use any variation of onion to replace shallots.
- Garlic – fresh or jarred minced garlic can be used or garlic powder if in a pinch.
- Portobello mushrooms – brown cremini mushrooms are a great alternative to portobello mushrooms. Leave them out or double the button or cremini mushrooms.
- Button mushrooms – follow substitution notes above.
- Cremini mushrooms – follow substitution notes for portobello mushrooms.
- Beef broth – chicken or vegetable broth can be used in place of beef broth.
- Red wine – leave this out entirely if you prefer not to use any.
- Wild rice – long grain wild rice is a great option as well as mushroom rice.
- Parmesan cheese – grated asiago cheese is a great alternative.
- Sage – rosemary, basil, oregano or marjoram can be used.
- Thyme – oregano, basil, Italian seasoning or marjoram can be used in place of thyme.
- Kale – collard greens, spinach or another dark leafy green can be used to replace kale.
- Salt & pepper (to taste)
Turkey sausage
- Ground turkey – make it a chicken or pork sausage by using ground chicken or pork.
- Dijon mustard – use honey dijon mustard, plain yellow mustard or another dijon mustard variation of your choice.
- Garlic – fresh or jarred minced garlic can be used or garlic powder if in a pinch.
- Fennel seeds – anise, cumin or licorice root can be used in place of fennel seeds.
- Sage – rosemary, basil, oregano or marjoram can be used.
- Thyme – oregano, basil, Italian seasoning or marjoram can be used in place of thyme.
- Salt & pepper (to taste)
Pre-cook the filling in advance
This recipe is a great meal prep recipe that you can even prepare in advance! Cut down cook time by a ton of time by pre-cooking your acorn squash filling. Once you've pre-cooked the sausage and kale, store it in the refrigerator where it will last for two or three days.
If you want to prepare further in advance, freeze the filling! It will last in the freezer for two to three months. The kale is hearty enough to freeze that far in advance, so be mindful if you decide to replace the kale with another leafy green.
Storing and reheating
This stuffed acorn recipe as a whole is a great meal prep option! Store leftovers or meal prep servings in the refrigerator for up to five days.
To reheat, place the stuffed acorn squash halves into the oven for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees F for 2-3 minutes.
Freezing stuffed acorn squash
Alongside being a great meal prep recipe, you can freeze cooked acorn squash as well! I recommend storing the acorn squash and the filling separately to make reheating from frozen an easier task. If freezing the stuffing, follow the instructions above under the header “pre-cooking the filling in advance”. Then to freeze the acorn squash, make sure to cook it first. Cut it into chunks, puree it or simply keep it in its halves. Acorn squash can be kept in the freezer for 10-12 months!
More stuffed squash recipes
- Three ingredient stuffed acorn squash
- Scallop spaghetti squash carbonara
- Chicken caprese spaghetti squash
Meal prep tools
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls to store the leftovers from this recipe
- I get all my ground meats from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen!
Sausage & Mushroom Stuffed Acorn Squash
Ingredients
- 4 acorn squash seeds scooped out and cut in quarters
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- tsp rosemary sage and thyme (dried or fresh...about 1-2each)
- Salt & pepper to taste
Stuffing
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- turkey sausage see below
- 2 shallots diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Portobello mushrooms diced
- 1 cup Button mushrooms diced
- 1 cup cremini mushrooms diced
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 1 tbsp red wine
- 1 cup cooked wild rice
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp fresh chopped sage
- 1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
- 1 cup chopped kale
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Turkey sausage
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 2 tsp chopped fresh sage
- 2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut acorn squash in half, then cut halves in half (you should come out with four quarters per squash and eight quarters total).
- Brush squash with melted butter and brown sugar then sprinkle rosemary, sage, thyme, salt and pepper overtop. Bake in the oven for 30 min.
- Meanwhile, make rice according to package directions in a rice cooker and chop up mushrooms. Mix together all ingredients for turkey sausage.
- Heat olive oil in a large pan on med-high heat, then add turkey sausage mixture, breaking up into 1 inch pieces. Add shallots and garlic, sauteing for 3-4 min. Add mushrooms and saute another 3-4 min. Add beef broth, red wine and balsamic vinegar and simmer for 10 min until mushroom juices are mostly absorbed.
- Add wild rice and parmesan cheese, cooking for another 2 min. Remove from heat and stir in sage, thyme, kale, salt and pepper.
- Squash should be done cooking in the oven at this point so remove them and then stuff with the turkey sausage and rice mixture. There may be some leftover - you can freeze it to use for another time!
- Bake squash with stuffing in the oven for 5 min, then serve!
Nutrition
Nancy DeZarn says
Whole family LOVED it. Flavors were amazing. It did not take 30 minutes though. That would be my only critique because it was the bomb.
Heather says
Hi, I’m not a fan of mushrooms, but I love acorn squash. Do you have any suggestions for a mushroom substitute in this recipe? Thanks!
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Heather! I would sub in bell peppers if you don’t like mushrooms 🙂