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
I gave just the stuffing part to my toddler and he loves it!!
Can you freeze this
Please read the blog post. We’ve written: Freezing: I would not recommend freezing the stuffed acorn squash as it will get soggy
This is a great recipe and I found it was very open to substitutions. When I went shopping there was one acorn squash left but several honey nut squash. I roasted one of each, and since the honey nut is sweeter, I subbed red onion for the apples… and it worked! This would be a great breakfast or brunch dish with a poached or soft scrambled egg. Thanks for the recipe!
This is so good! I added some wild and brown rice blend and also some thyme and sage to the herbs. Loved it and will make again!
Sounds so yummy! Thanks for sharing, Rebecca!
This is another staple recipe that I keep on hand. So easy and unbelievably flavorful. I made this for a dinner party and got so many compliments!!
Yay! Love hearing that!
I love this recipe!!! It is a perfect fall dish. The flavors all go so well together. My sister and I make it once a week!
So happy you liked it, Jamie! Thank you 🙂
So easy to make and so tasty. On weekly rotation during squash Season. Love the flavor.
Thank you so much, Jessica!
This recipe is amazing one of my favorite fall recipes . A must try ! I made it few times for family and friends and they all loved it !
So happy everyone enjoyed it!
One of my favs! I subbed the apples for pears bc of an allergy but this recipe is always on rotate in the fall bc it’s so filling and has so many fall flavors.
That substitution sounds delicious!! Thanks for trying it!
This recipe is amazing. My whole family loves this, and they never agree on anything. It’s in my favorites list.
So happy your family enjoys it, Chris!
I love this recipe! It’s so full of flavor and surprisingly easy to make. I don’t typically like mushrooms, but in this blend they’re so good for adding flavor!
Thank you so much!!
Great recipe as always! It was really easy and a good way to make acorn squash yummy! It was great for breakfast also!
Thanks, Christina! I appreciate it!
Such a perfect fall meal! This is delish!
Thank you so much, Jenn! Glad you liked it!
Could you add some walnuts?
I’m sure it would work!
I will skip the cheese everything isle sounds good!
This was my first time cooking with Acorn squash. Thank you for a great introduction. Very easy, healthy and not complicated at all. Will be a keeper.
Forgot to add a rating.
Thanks, Dawn! So glad you liked it!
So much easier than I expected and sooo yummy!!!
Thanks, Ariana! so happy. you liked it!
Just harvested some acorn squash from my garden and it was right in time for this recipe. It was a great dinner recipe for our family and our kids really liked it too. Thank you for sharing this one!
Thanks, Griff! Glad you and your family enjoyed it!
This is a great recipe, one of my fall favorites!
My husband and I weren’t in the mood for cooking tonight and almost leaned towards making an unhealthy, fast meal. Thank goodness he talked me out of it! I pulled up this recipe I saved from Instagram and not only was this delicious, but we enjoyed spending time making an easy, healthy recipe together. What a great way to spend unwinding from a long day and it didn’t feel like work at all. This has meat and veggies all stuffed into one delicious acorn squash!
So glad you decided to make this recipe and were able to enjoy time together – that’s awesome! Happy you enjoyed it 🙂
So good so easy. I made them for my mom she can’t stop talking about. Delicious. This is probably my 5th time making. Fantastic recipe.
So happy you both liked the recipe, Jess!
I am doubling the recipe. Should I increase the cooking time?
I don’t think you should have to increase the cook time for this. Maybe if your oven is overcrowded it could use a few more minutes.
Made this again. Loved it. I had 3 squashes so used a whole one to mix in the stuffing. I added toasted almond for a crunch and texture.
So glad you liked it!
So glad you liked it, Thanks Jess!
My absolute favorite way to eat acorn squash now- and it’s so versatile!! I’ve used this as a base for every acorn squash that I’ve roasted- thank you so very much 🙂
Thanks, Kaitlin! Glad you like it!
Seriously my favorite way to make stuffed squash. All the flavors blend together so well, prefect healthy comfort food. I probably made this once a week for a month straight.
Thank you so much! I’m so happy you liked the recipe!