Vegetarian Stuffed Acorn Squash
This vegetarian stuffed acorn squash recipe is beautiful and delicious! The cheesy quinoa filling develops an irresistible crispy top in the oven. So good!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
Is this stuffed acorn squash pretty or what? I’m really excited to share this recipe with you. Roasted acorn squash halves topped with herbed quinoa make a delicious holiday-worthy main dish. It’s the perfect option if you’re serving vegetarian and gluten-free eaters.
This recipe is simple enough to put together on a relaxed weeknight, too. Pour yourself a glass of wine and let’s make some stuffed squash!
This recipe requires a few steps, but none of them are difficult. You can make the quinoa mixture while the squash is in the oven. Then, stuff the squash and bake until the quinoa turns golden and develops delicious little crispy bits on top.
The filling steals the show in this recipe. It features cranberry-studded quinoa and two kinds of cheese, one creamy and one melty. Chopped parsley and green onion offer lots of irresistible fresh flavor, and toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) contribute some savory crunch.
How to Make Stuffed Acorn Squash
I treat my acorn squash the same as I do spaghetti squash—rubbed lightly with olive oil and baked cut-side down so the edges develop some delicious caramelization. Acorn squash bakes up even faster, in as little as 35 minutes.
Then, I stuffed the squash with a modified version of my stuffed sweet potatoes in Love Real Food (page 144). This time, I stirred dried cranberries into the hot quinoa to give them a chance to plump up. I also added some Parmesan for structure and extra flavor, and baked the squash again after stuffing it.
I love how the herbed quinoa mixture turns golden in the oven and develops an almost panko-like, crisp texture on top. It’s so good and contrasts beautifully with the tender squash beneath.
Watch How to Make Stuffed Acorn Squash
Chickpeas are Optional
I purposefully omitted the chickpeas from the original stuffing recipe. As written, you should have exactly enough filling to stuff four medium squash halves.
If you’re using particularly large acorn squash or wanting to up the protein content of this meal, you can stir one can of chickpeas (rinsed and drained) into the quinoa mixture as described in the recipe notes.
You can easily make this recipe dairy free or vegan—check the recipe notes for suggestions!
Serving Suggestions
My favorite green salad would be the perfect complement to this stuffed squash. It features fresh apple, which pairs beautifully with acorn squash, and a few of the same ingredients—toasted pepitas, dried cranberries and goat cheese. If you make both recipes at once, you’ll use up one standard four-ounce package of goat cheese.
Another beautiful salad option would be my pomegranate and pear green salad with ginger dressing.
Looking for more holiday-worthy vegetarian main dishes and sides? Check out my Thanksgiving recipe roundup for more ideas.
Please let me know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments! I hope it’s a big hit at your dinner table.
Vegetarian Stuffed Acorn Squash
This vegetarian stuffed acorn squash recipe is beautiful and delicious! The cheesy quinoa filling develops an irresistible crispy top in the oven. Make it for your holiday dinner or serve it on a relaxed weeknight at home. Recipe yields 4 stuffed squash halves.
Ingredients
- 2 medium acorn squash
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, divided
- ½ cup quinoa, rinsed
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- ¼ cup raw pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)
- ¼ cup chopped green onion
- ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish
- 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup crumbled goat cheese or feta
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper for easy clean-up.
- To prepare the squash, use a sharp chef’s knife to slice through it from the tip to the stem. I find it easiest to pierce the squash in the center along a depression line, then cut through the tip, and finish by slicing through the top portion just next to the stem. Use a large spoon to scoop out the seeds and stringy bits inside, and discard those pieces.
- Place the squash halves cut side up on the parchment-lined pan. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over the squash, and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon of the salt. Rub the oil into the cut sides of the squash, then turn them over so the cut sides are against the pan. Bake until the squash flesh is easily pierced through by a fork, about 30 to 45 minutes. Leave the oven on.
- Meanwhile, cook the quinoa: In a medium saucepan, combine the rinsed quinoa and water. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer. Simmer, uncovered, until all of the water is absorbed, 12 to 18 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the cranberries. Cover, and let the mixture steam for 5 minutes. Uncover and fluff the quinoa with a fork.
- In a medium skillet, toast the pepitas over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the pepitas are turning golden on the edges and making little popping noises, about 4 to 5 minutes. Set aside.
- Pour the fluffed quinoa mixture into a medium mixing bowl. Add the toasted pepitas, chopped green onion, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, and the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Stir until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Taste and add additional salt, if necessary.
- If the mixture is very hot, let it cool for a few minutes before adding the Parmesan cheese and goat cheese. Gently stir the mixture to combine.
- Turn the cooked squash halves over so the cut sides are facing up. Divide the mixture evenly between the squash halves with a large spoon. Return the squash to the oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until the cheesy quinoa is turning golden on top.
- Sprinkle the stuffed squash with the remaining 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, and serve warm.
Notes
Squash filling adapted from the stuffed sweet potatoes in my cookbook, Love Real Food (page 144).
Change it up: You can add more protein to this dish by stirring 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained (or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas), into the quinoa mixture. You may have some of the mixture leftover—it’s a great quinoa salad on its own.
Make it dairy free/vegan: Omit both varieties of cheese. You might want to add chickpeas (see above) to fill out the stuffing mixture. Top the baked squash with dollops of vegan sour cream, and you could even finish it off with a sprinkle of vegan Parmesan.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I made this last night and it was heaven on a plate. Just the right blend of all those flavors. Every bite was bursting with them!
I never knew you could toast those little pumpkin kernals and those things were amazing! I made extra just to snack on.
I loved this meal and it’s going in my rotation. I can’t wait to have it again.
I love that! Thank you for sharing, Jeanette!
Made this tonight with several substitutions based on what we had on hand; stuffed with quinoa, red onion, slivered almonds, parsley, and on the suggestion of my husband, crumbled blue cheese. It was delicious! The blue cheese was a great addition.
Thank you for sharing, Laurie!
This is delicious! I think it will become my go-to fall/winter meal. I found your site when a friend shared this recipe on her fb page and the photo was so inviting.
This was very good. We roasted chic peas and added chili powder and smoked paprika to them prior also tossed the pepita’s in chili powder and smoked paprika. Elizabeth
Thanks for sharing!
One word for this recipe: YUMMY! I think next time I might add a little more dried cranberries and lemon juice but otherwise this is an absolute perfect fall meal. Thank you for this inventive way to use acorn squash!!
You’re welcome, Carly! Thanks for your review.
Wow this was yummy! Thank you so much for this recipe, I will definitely make it again! However I changed almost the entire thing, but I still give you credit, because I wouldn’t have prepared it like this.
The only thing I had in my house when I wanted to make this was cheeses, quinoa, and the squash (according to the recipe). So I used what I had on hand….dates, which gave extra sweetness that I LOVED, yellow onions sautéed in a little water just to soften them up a bit because I don’t like that raw onion taste. Once the water evaporated I added walnuts, because I could’ve swore I had pepitas “way back there somewhere”…got tired of looking and found the walnuts. Toasted that with the onions.
I didn’t have parsley but I had fresh rosemary, so I chopped that up and threw that in there. And then for oil right before baking it the second time, I had some pasta oil…something fancy that’s spiked with garlic and thyme (because I didn’t have garlic). Got lucky and had a lemon!
I have never prepared a squash this way. I recently joined a CSA and had all these squashes to use. Found this recipe on Pinterest, and now I’m a fan…of this bog and of squash! :o)
I appreciate your detail! I’m happy to hear you were able to make it work.
Absolutely delicious! My husband and I loved it . Made it just as written .
I’m curious as to why you discard the squash seeds and add pepitas? The seeds of acorn squash are as tasty and nutritious as pepitas(pepitas are just squash seeds, after all), and you can just toast them in the oven alongside the squash.
That sounds like a great idea! I don’t love cooking the seeds, but if you have a great method then go for it. :)
HI Kate,
do you think this would work with Israeli cous cous? My husband is not a fan of quinoa.
You could try it! Rice could be nice too.
Fabulous main dish. I made the vegan version using the chick peas and substituted dried cherries for cranberries since that is what I had in the pantry. Sprinkled Panko bread crumbs on top for a little crunch. Great recipe. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing, Kit!
Kate – First – Love all of your stuff and have your cookbook – love that too – make another! Question, I want to do this stuffed acorn squash for Thanksgiving for my brother and fiance ho are vegetarians but I also have a bird and lots of other things going. Do you think I can cook the squash and quinoa the day before (through step 7)and refrigerate – then assemble and reheat in the oven (Steps 8&9) on the next day? If so, would I add any time to the final reheat?
I needed a quinoa recipe to make with my Instant Pot acorn squash and came upon yours and I am sure glad I did! For the sake of time I didn’t add all of the ingredients to the quinoa and it was delicious – my new favorite way to make it. I did, however, also use the Instant Pot to make this whole thing very quickly. In one pot I made the acorn squash. In the other pot I sauteed 1 cup of quinoa for a few minutes in olive oil until toasted, added 1 cup of broth, pinch of salt, high pressure for 0 minutes. Then per your suggestion I added fresh parsley, dried cranberries, and lemon juice. I did not care for the parmesan with it (hence the 4 stars but that’s just personal preference) so omitted. Simple and delicious. I also had some leftover butternut squash soup so I added the quinoa to that, too and boy was that yummy! This was my first recipe from your site and I am looking forward to trying more.
Thank you for sharing, Steph! I’m happy you were able to still enjoy it.
I making this as my main dish for my very first Vegetarian Thanksgiving this week. I am so excited to see how this turns out. It looks amazing!
I hope you love it! Thanks for your comment, Shannon.
Even though I made a few substitutions because I didn’t have all ingredients, this recipe was absolutely delicious! Used sunflower kernels, red onion and raisins because I had those in stock. Will definitely make this recipe again!
I’m happy to hear that, Barbara! I appreciate your review.
Making this for the first time so my vegetarian guest can have a main course too. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find pepitas. I have almonds, pecans and pistachios on hand. Any recommendation on which would be a better sub? Thanks!
I think sliced almonds or chopped pecans would work!
My vegan adult son and I made this for our main course for Thanksgiving dinner. We did not use the chickpeas, as I have become bored with them recently, and I added cheese only to mine, but otherwise they came out perfectly as expected. Easy, substantial (he ate a whole squash, lol!) and such great flavor! Thank you! I will definitely be doing this one again.
Thanks for sharing!
My mother and I made this together and we both had tons of fun doing it. While it did take two hours (probably because it was our first time), it truly was worth seeing the smiles on my kids’ faces. I just wanted to say that my mother had the idea to add more flavor by cooking the quinoa in vegetable broth instead of water.
Thanks a bunch for this recipe, Kate!
Stuffed acorn squash
Hi, Kate. I made this recipe and my spouse and I loved it. I didn’t use the chickpeas. This would have made too much stuffing as my acorn squash were on the smaller side and the stuffing recipe made exactly enough to amply fill the squash. (Our oven is broken, waiting for a replacement, so I made this recipe in a toaster oven where I generally use smaller sized veggies that fit the toaster oven scale.) I made this recipe for a vegan friend. I followed the recipe closely except I didn’t use any cheese; I substituted two tablespoons of nutritional yeast for the Parmesan cheese and it worked pretty well. I also used double the garlic, being a garlic fan. The cranberries and the pepitas are a nice touch as well. And thanks for a geat website! Tom Shelley, Ithaca NY
Thank you for sharing, Tom!
This would have been good if I liked goat cheese. The picture looked so good that I decided to follow it to the letter. I had never had goat cheese and didn’t care for it. Totally NOT your fault. But I’ve loved many of your other recipes. Great blog!!
You could try feta!
I’ll definitely try it again with Feta. . I hope you have a Merry Christmas
I subbed out the quinoa for pearled couscous and it was a huge hit at thanksgiving this year.
What do you think of omitting the cheese (I’m lactose intolerant) & adding tahini sauce? It kind of reminds me of the roasted carrots & farro dish in your cookbook which is so good with tahini!
Hi Hayley! I’m not sure about tahini sauce, but you can omit the cheese for this one. But, if you try it let me know!
This is one of my new favorite winter recipes! The quinoa filling always makes extra, but it keeps well and I use the leftover to to make hearty salads for lunch. I skip the cheese and include the chickpeas. I’ve subbed red onions for green when I don’t have any. Thanks for another great recipe!
I love it! Thanks for your comment, Gabrielle!
So delicious and not too labor-intensive! I think this is one of my new favorites!
My girlfriend made this for the last meal of 2019 for me & her family. It might be the best thing about 2019! She paired it with your suggested arugula salad & they were both divine. I’ve printed out the recipe so I can make them both at home. It’s the ultimate flavorful comfort food! Thank you. Namaste–Shirley, Santa Barbara, California
P.S. You’ve got a cookbook??!!!
I made this tonight and it is SO delicious! We ate every bite. The mixture of cheeses, sweet cranberries and crunchy pepitas is a party in my mouth! Thank you for the recipe.
YUM! What a great recipe. I will have to make this again in the future.
I’m glad you loved it, Juliana!
I didn’t take a picture but I have to tell you, it came out delicious and I used the stuffing, because I had so much, the next day. I altered a bit because I didn’t have all the ingredients. I used a pkg of Quinoa and Brown Rice I cooked in the microwave for all of 90 seconds. I used the apple, added lots of dried cranberries, no pepitas, no lemon, no parsley, added salt, pepper and chopped sausage that I had browned just like chopped meat. Came out fabulous but the next day I made rigatoni and I used a jar of marinara sauce, added the leftover stuffing and some mushrooms I had left over and let me tell you how good that was! Great keeper just shortened the cooking time a bit.
I’m glad it came out so good, Patsy! I appreciate your comment and review.
This is my favorite quick recipe of all time! I’m making it right now, and in about 20 minutes I’ll be enjoying this fresh, heavenly recipe! Thank you, Kate!
The best way to describe this dish is that it’s popping with fall flavour. My first time trying Acorn Squash and you got me hooked. Thanks for such an amazing recipe.
Terrific recipe. Very flavorful dish, enhanced by the lovely crunch to the quinoa.I only used 1/2 the goat cheese but it was enough to add a wonderful richness.
Yum! Based on what’s around at home at the moment I used bulgur wheat for quinoa, leftover ricotta ravioli filling for the cheese, and raisins for the cranberries! Was really good – I often avoid stuffing recipes for fear of blandness but this was really tasty and had a great crunch! Thank you
This tasted good! I made it vegan – skipped cheeses and added cranberries!
Family loved this. I added 1/3 c. onion, 1 chopped stalk celery, 1 chopped small carrot (mirepoix) and 1/3t Better than Bouillion soup stock concentrate when cooking quinoa to add flavor. Use a metal coffee filter when washing the quinoa to make this task quick and easy.
Thank you for sharing, Brian.
Good recipes. Keep them coming .
Jan
Made this for dinner tonight. It was a hit and will be in our rotation of dinner options. We added the chickpeas one of our favorites. Thanks for creating such a yummy dish.
This was super easy to follow! My stab at it came out fantastic
I’ve recently tried (Deliciously successful) acorn squash on the grill. I think this recipe would work well on the grill as well. I’ll let you know…Can’t wait to give this a try!
I made this without much thought; I had one acorn squash and some random ingredients I hoped would turn into a meal.
What a fantastic recipe! I subbed golden raisins for cranberries. Although parsley would have been perfect, I subbed some fresh thyme and chives instead. I also added diced mushrooms that needed to be used up.
This is a great recipe that allows substitutions. I’ve already picked up the groceries to make this again!
Such a wonderful recipe !
I totally hacked it based on what I had in my pantry but the cheesy quinoa goodness was wonderful
I did hazelnuts instead of pepita
Dates instead of cranberries
Added tomato and chickpea and pan fried onions + carrots
I’m glad you found something that worked with what you had and like it, Odre! Thank you for sharing.
This was amazing! The flavors were so well balanced
parmesan cheese isn’t vegetarian, just so you know
This has become my absolute go-to stuffed acorn squash recipe. The only thing I change is that I add crumbled tempeh to the stuffing.
Just a great crowd pleaser when having friends over for dinner
I absolutely love this recipe! My go-to base-recipe for stuffed squash.
Yum!!! Loved the cheesy quinoa stuffing! I love the stuffed sweet potato recipe from your cookbook so this one was equally as tasty. Just a tad sweeter from the dates I used. So filling!
Thank you for your review, Amy! Happy you loved it.
One of the best vegetarian recipes I’ve tried!!!
Hooray! I love it. Thank you for sharing.
My hubby LOVED this. I used shallots because of a garlic allergy and instead of petitas, I used hamburger meat. I asked if we should try chickpeas instead and he said yes!! Thank you so much for a great recipe.
I loved this recipe, easy and delicious.. thank you….. got a question please, I have three more Acorn Squash and I’d love to do this recipe for thanksgiving, can I bake and stuff them and then freeze them?
Thanks Jeanna
Hi Jenna! I’m not sure this one would be the best frozen. Sorry! But, I’m glad you loved it.
This was excellent! I didn’t have parsley but substituted chopped spinach, and added toasted pine nuts and pecans as I didn’t have pepitas. Will definitely make again
That’s great! Thank you for your review, Connie.
Thanks for your lovely recipe, as per usual. They are worth trying and diabetic-friendly too.
This was incredible as usual. I used a delicata so I cooked it for less time and had to use regular sweet onions and dried parsley. I also added the chickpeas. I really liked the salty/sweet/nutty combo. Definitely adding this to my fall recipe repertoire. I have yet to be unhappy with a single one of your recipes!
Hooray! Thank you for sharing, Kelly.
Wow this was so good! I made it with a spaghetti squash because that’s what I had on hand and the filling filled up both sides just fine. Thank you so much and I can’t wait to make it again!
I’m glad you loved it, Adrienne! Thank you for your review.