Stuffed Acorn Squash
This post contains affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
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
Loved this recipe, so easy and delicious
Thanks, Morgan! Glad you liked it!
I just want to preface this review by saying I am a terrible cook. I try, but if a recipe isn’t written out clearly enough for me, I somehow manage to mess it up! I followed this recipe to the letter and let me say – it was SO GOOD! I did end up with enough filling to fill an extra squash but other than that it turned out exactly the way it was supposed to and it was delicious to boot! Even my kids ate it (they are super picky but just picked out the mushrooms and ate everything else which is a miracle!) I really can’t wait to have this again and continue trying the recipes on this site because apparently they are “bad cook” proof!!
I’m so happy to hear this, Jenny! I’m glad your whole family enjoyed the recipe and that it was easy to follow! Sometimes depending on the size of squash and the amount of filling in it you’ll wind up with extra filling 🙂
It was a great, simple recipe and tasted amazing. I added plant based ingredients such as vegan mozzarella and plant based italian sausage. It was hearty and filling.
Thank you so much, Amber! Glad you enjoyed it + love that you were able to make it vegan!
I am not a fan of squash but my husband loves it. I found this recipe and thought it would work for both of us and boy does it, I used sausage and it was delicious! I am sure all the ideas for filling would be just as good. I have made this twice already and both times I ate every bite! I can’t think of any other way I will ever enjoy squash! Thank you!
So glad you liked it, Lisa! It is really yummy with sausage!
Can you make the stuffing ahead of time?
Yes, you could. You can make/stuff the squash and then bake it in the oven when ready to eat. I would just scoop the filling out of the acorn squash when it’s warm because it’s a little easier to do than when it’s ice cold 🙂
Husband approved! Delicious and perfect flavor for the holidays
Yay! Love to hear that! Thanks for trying the recipe!
Such a great fall recipe! Very filling, delicious and easy to put together!
Thanks, Vanessa! It’s one of our favorite fall meals too 🙂
This recipe is so easy and delicious! My fiance already asked for me to make it again 🙂 Thanks Liz for so many healthy, yummy recipes!
Thank you so much, Ashley! That makes me so happy to hear. Love that you + your fiancé enjoyed it!
Great recipe and incredibly flavorful! I made the recipe as is with the exception that I kept the acorn squash in 10 minutes longer before stuffing it with the turkey (because it wasn’t tender yet). Highly recommend and look forward to making again!
So glad you liked it, Vicky! Sometimes acorn squash needs a little bit longer to cook depending on how ripe they are!
Wow, I love this so much! I’ve made this two times now on separate Sundays and reheated all week for my work lunches. It reheats really well. I haven’t gotten to try it with the rosemary yet. I did add garlic and allspice and really like the flavor those added. Will definitely be making this regularly from now on.
I’m glad you like them, Liz! They reheat super well. Love the addition of the garlic + allspice!
Super Delicious and easy to put together. Big hit with my hubby too! I will make this again!
So glad you liked it, Sharon! It’s one of our favs!
OMG this is DELICIOUS!!! I used spicy turkey sausage, chopped onion and garlic. YUMMM!!!
Thank you so much, Meghan! I’m glad you liked it – I need to try it with spicy turkey sausage, that sounds so good!
So easy and so delicious! The whole family loved it!
I’m so glad you + your family liked it, Jenn!
I made this tonight and it was a hit! So delicious! I did add onions to mine because I’m in love with onions. 😉
Thank you so much, Courtney! Glad you liked it. Onions/fresh garlic are a great addition!
This was so good. Tastes like Fall. Definitely making it again!
So glad you liked it, Terri! It’s one of my favorite fall recipes!
Loved the the stuffed acorn squash. I used butternut because that is what I grew in my garden. It turned out amazing.
Thank you so much Lori! Glad it worked well with the butternut squash + so cool that you grew it yourself!
Is this recipe for 2 acorns, halved or 2 acorn halves? The way I read it you’d use 2 acorns but recipe implies 1 acorn.
The recipe is for 2 acorn squash. You cut them in half, so there are 4 halves.
Healthy + satisfying recipe full of delicious Fall flavors!
So glad you liked them, Kristina! They’re the ultimate fall dinner 🙂
SO delicious! The perfect combination of yummy fall flavors! Family approved from a very picky bunch and super easy/ quick to make. We added goat cheese on top due to dietary reasons and it was still very good! I’ll definitely be mking this again!
I’m so glad you liked this recipe, Ryan! I’m totally going to try this with goat cheese – it’s my favorite type of cheese so I’m sure it’s delicious!
I made this without the apples and it was amazing! I will definitely be making again and can’t wait to try it with the apples. I love following The Clean Eating Couple on Instagram.
I’m so glad you liked this recipe, Angela! And so happy you’re following 🙂
The ingredients say ground turkey but in the instructions,#9,
you refer to sausage. Is it turkey sausage or just ground turkey?
Thank you. Looks so good!
Hi Amy – It’s just ground turkey, that was a typo. However, you can make this with sausage, turkey or ground beef. It’s delicious no matter what you use!
Thank you so much for the quick reply. I just made it (using ground turkey) and the filling is very tasty! Since I’m not ready to eat it yet, I’m skipping step #10 and storing the filling and squash boats separately, to bake later. I’m also thinking if that works, this is going to be a great addition to Thanksgiving dinner.
This is a perfect fall meal. It’s so simple to make and so filling and delicious!
Thank you so much!! I totally agree- it’s so cozy and yummy for fall!
Did you use red or green apples?
Hi Whitney, You can use either. I prefer red apples but any type of apple will work!
This is so delicious! I’ve made it several times. Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
I’m so glad you like it, Dilyn!
Wonderful recipe! A family favorite. A great way to get my kid to eat acorn squash!
So glad you like it, Kimberly!!
can i subtitute the mushroom with somthing else
Hi Karen – there is a list of substituions in the recipe. If you don’t have or don’t like mushrooms, simply omit them.
Question! Would this recipe also work with spaghetti squash? If so, would the cook time or temperature change?
Hi Samantha, I’m not sure how this would work with a spaghetti squash… The filling of spaghetti squash is much more water-y than acorn squash. I would recommend just cooking your spaghetti squash and turkey mixture separately, shredding the spaghetti squash and then serving the turkey over it when you’re done. Hope that helps!
This was easy and delicious. We aren’t a mushroom family but I added some thyme and the tiniest bit of soy sauce to replace that umami mushroom flavor and it worked pretty well. A nice fall dinner!