Stuffed Acorn Squash
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A Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe you have to try! This stuffed squash is so easy to make – try it with sausage or keep it vegetarian!
This post was originally shared in 2017 but has since been updated.
If you’re looking for a dish that’s both hearty and healthy, this Stuffed Acorn Squash is perfect!
Acorn squash gets roasted to perfection and tossed with protein packed turkey, mushrooms, apples, and melty cheddar cheese for the perfect salty and sweet combo made in under an hour.
This dish is easy to make with simple, affordable ingredients and can be customized in a ton of different ways depending on what you have on hand!
(This recipe would be amazing on Thanksgiving as an alternative to turkey. If you’re still planning your Thanksgiving menu – check out these Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes!)
liz’s tips for stufedd acorn squash
- If you’re wondering how to pick an acorn squash – it’s very simple! Acorn squash should be firm to the touch, like a potato. You’ll want to look for one that is medium in size because the larger the squash, the more seeds. Make sure the squash isn’t mushy and look for ones that don’t have many holes or dents.
Ingredients
substitutions
Acorn Squash: You should be able to find acorn squash in stores from October-March! I haven’t tried making this recipe with spaghetti squash but I’m sure it would be delicious! Check out this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash Boats to see how to cook the squash. I would follow the directions in that post and just sub in this filling instead of the chicken/broccoli filling. If you have butternut squash, try Ground Beef Butternut Skillet.
Olive Oil: If you don’t have olive oil you can use avocado oil or melted butter.
Meat: You can make acorn stuffed squash with Italian sausage, ground beef, ground pork, or ground chicken instead of turkey in this recipe if you’d like. We also have a Beef Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe.
Mushrooms: If you don’t like baby bella mushrooms, omit them. Any mushrooms will work in this recipe, or you could also add in some chopped onions in their place, but I would halve the amount.
Apples: You can omit apples if you don’t like them. Any apple variety will work, but Honeycrisp apples are my favorite because they’re tart and sweet!
Chicken Stock: Chicken broth, chicken stock, and bone broth can all be used interchangeably. You can also use vegetable or beef broth.
Herbs: Fresh herbs will definitely give the most flavor. If you don’t have fresh rosemary, sub with 1 tablespoon dried rosemary. You can also sub with thyme or sage.
Cheese: Cheddar, mozzarella, or gruyere are all delicious! Freshly grated cheese will melt better.
Whole30/Paleo: To make this Turkey Mushroom Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash paleo or whole30, just leave off the cheese!
Vegetarian – I haven’t tried making this vegetarian, but I think it would be delicious if you subbed in chickpeas and a mix of quinoa or rice as the filling.
How to cut squash for this Baked Stuffed Acorn Squash
- On a cutting board, slice from the stem towards the pointed edge of the squash directly down the middle. Acorn squashes have ridges in them, so if you can find a ridge to guide the knife through it will be easier to cut. Having a sharp knife is helpful for any hard squash varieties.
- Once the acorn squash is cut in half, scoop out the seeds. You can just use a regular spoon.
- Make sure you scrape the inside of the squash halves until they are smooth and not stringy. You want to keep as much of the flesh as possible for roasting. Discard the seeds or rinse them off and roast in the oven with some salt and pepper for a great snack!
How to make Stuffed Acorn Squash:
- Cut, prep + roast the squash halves on a parchment lined baking sheet. Roast the cut side facing down on your lined cookie sheet.
- While the acorn squash halves cook, cook your turkey, apple, mushroom filling.
- When the acorn squash is finished roasting, scoop out the filling to create ‘boats’ and add to the turkey mixture.
- Stir the filling together so it’s evenly mixed.
- Stuff the acorn squash
- Top the stuffed squash with cheese and bake on the parchment lined baking sheet!
What to serve with this recipe
This stuffed acorn squash is a complete meal! Feel free to serve it with extra veggies on the side like:
What does acorn squash pair well with? Acorn squash is slightly sweet so it pairs well with savory things like fresh herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme), onions, garlic, Italian sausage, bacon, and other meats. Turkey stuffed acorn squash is a great balance of protein and vegetables. We love this pairing the best.
Storage options
Refrigerator: Stuffed acorn squash leftovers will last for 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
Freezing: I would not recommend freezing the stuffed acorn squash, as it will get soggy
Make Ahead: If you want to make the filling/stuff the acorn squash ahead of time, you can also do that and bake when you’re ready to eat!
Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the microwave, oven, or toaster oven. If you want the cheese to be crispy, I would recommend putting it back in the toaster oven or oven. Otherwise, the microwave is fine!
FAQs
Yes, you can eat the skin of acorn squash. It’s a little bit tough and can be hard to digest, but you can absolutely eat it! I prefer not to eat acorn squash skin, but it is edible. It’s tougher than a potato’s skin and almost has a waxy feel to it.
Other healthy dinner recipes to try:
If you love ground turkey, check out these Healthy Ground Turkey Recipes! Otherwise, check out these other Healthy Recipes for Dinner:
Stuffed Acorn Squash
Ingredients
- 2 whole acorn squash cut in half
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb ground turkey or ground beef
- 1 ½ cups diced baby bella mushrooms
- 1 cup peeled and diced honeycrisp apples
- ½ cup low sodium chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, gruyere or mozzarella all work great!)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and prepare a parchment lined baking sheet. Spray the parchment paper with olive oil to prevent squash from sticking.
- Slice the acorn squash in half vertically. Scoop out the seeds and place the squash flat on sheet, cut-side face down.
- Bake the squash for 20 minutes, until it is tender when pierced with a fork.
- While the squash cooks, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan. Brown the turkey in the olive oil for 10 minutes until almost cooked through.
- While the turkey is cooking, chop the mushrooms, apples and herbs.
- Add the chopped mushrooms, apples, chicken stock, and spices to the pan with the cooked turkey. Sauté for an additional 5 minutes.
- When the squash is cooked, remove from the oven and scoop out most of the flesh, leaving a little bit of filling in the acorn squash.
- Add the squash filling to the turkey/mushroom/apple mixture in the pan and stir until completely mixed in.
- Scoop the turkey/squash mixture back into the hollowed out squash and top with cheese.
- Bake them at 450 degrees F for 5-10 minutes until cheese melts. Optional: broil for 2-3 minutes so the cheese gets crispy.
Video
Notes
- Meat– You can use ground beef, ground pork, sausage or ground chicken instead of turkey in this recipe if you’d like. We also have a Beef Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe.
- Whole30/Paleo – simply omit the cheese
- Mushrooms – If you don’t like mushrooms, omit them. You could also add in some chopped onions in their place, but I would halve the amount.
- Herbs – If you don’t have fresh rosemary, sub with 1 tablespoon dried rosemary. You can also sub with thyme.
- Cheese – Cheddar, mozzarella or gruyere are all delicious!
- Vegetarian – I haven’t tried making this vegetarian, but I think it would be delicious if you subbed in chickpeas and a mix of quinoa or rice as the filling.
- WW Freestyle – The only points in this recipe come from the olive oil and cheese. Feel free to sub/adjust to have a lower point meal. Points calculated using 99% fat free turkey
When do you put the cheese in?
Step 9: Scoop the turkey/squash mixture back into the hollowed out squash and top with cheese.
I’ve made this multiple times and it’s always delicious. I like that it’s healthy, too. Lots of flavor
SO good!! Such a fun and cozy meal! I subbed the ground turkey for a shredded chicken breast and used fresh chopped onion instead of onion powder and it turned out beautifully!
I loved this recipe. I’ll make it again and again. Thank you.
I’ve made this multiple times! It’s delicious, easy, and I love that it’s a bit different from my usual dinners!
Sooo good. Love the flavors!
We loved this dish, it was so delicious. We loved the apples in it, they brought some notes of sweetness. We will definitely make it again soon.
I made a double batch of these last week! Even my pickiest child ate one for dinner and then took one for her lunch the next day. So easy to make and sooo delicious!😋😋😋
I’m so happy to hear your family enjoyed it!! Thank you!
I had someleftover ground beed to use up, so I used it in these stuffed acorn squash. I replaced the mushrooms with some diced tomatoes and I didn’t have an open carton of broth, so I used a bit of leftover tomato soup. We all loved it!
Great idea! So glad you liked it!
Made this for dinner tonight, we really enjoyed it! This recipe is one to keep for future use. I appreciate the substitution options too!
So glad you liked it, Lesa!
I am planning on making this for dinner tonight, but was wondering if you have suggestions on reheating. I want to take some to a friend tomorrow. Thank you!
All of our blog posts have a storage section – it’s beige with a little snowflake icon. We always cover reheating instructions there 🙂 Here’s what it says: Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the microwave, oven, or toaster oven. If you want the cheese to be crispy I would recommend putting it back in the toaster oven or oven. Otherwise the microwave is fine!
Not a fan….it was probably something I did as usual. I thought the acorn squash would taste like butternut, which I love, but it didn’t at all. And I didn’t have rosemary so I used thyme. At least it looked good when it came out of the oven! 😂
Thanks for trying our stuffed acorn squash. Next time you’re going to leave a one star review on a recipe, I’d really encourage you to think about it before you do it.
Not liking the main ingredient of the recipe is more of a you problem than a reflection on the recipe. It’s ok that you don’t like it, but it’s not my fault that you don’t like the taste of the squash. Acorn squash and butternut squash are very different. My recipe has nothing to do with how that variety of squash tastes.
Thyme and rosemary have very different flavors, and I would’ve probably used half the amount of thyme.
Leaving one star reviews hurts food bloggers. It discourages people from making the recipe, and also can make our recipes show up further down in google. This applies for all bloggers. Next time you’re going to leave a one star review, think – is this really a bad recipe with issues? (Meaning the instructions didn’t work, it didn’t come out as expected, looks nothing like the photos, etc) Or is it just something I personally don’t like. (Or does it not taste good because I made a major change) There’s a big difference.
Divine! I used half an onion and didn’t include quite as many mushrooms because that’s what we had on hand. I’ll be making it again this week!
Yay! So glad you liked it Hannah. Thank you so much for trying it!
I just made this recipe for an autumn dinner. It’s a keeper!
So glad you liked it Leslie!
One of our families favorite recipes!!! I just wish the acorn squashes were easier to cut open.
They’re such a pain to cut open!! I agree, LOL! Glad you enjoyed this!