Scented Rice in Baked Pumpkin

An easy, filling vegetarian dish that makes the whole kitchen smell like autumn. 

• 1 small pie pumpkin (about 2lbs)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 C cooked brown rice
• 1/4 C coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
• 3 dried apricots, chopped
• 2 Tbsp raisins
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
• 1/8 tsp ground cumin

1.  Preheat oven to 400°F.  Wash pumpkin, cut off top stem section.  Remove seeds and scrape out stringy fibers.  Cut pumpkin in half vertically.  Brush halves with oil.  Place onto an ungreased baking sheet.   Bake at 400°F for 35-40 minutes or until tender.
2.  To hot rice, add pecans, apricots, raisins, salt, curry, cinnamon and cardamom if using.  Stir to combine. 
3.  Sprinkle cumin on inside of pumpkin halves; top with rice mixture. 

Robyn's notes: there's a lot here that I can't have, but it smelled fantastic and I did taste it to get a sense of the dish.  It was good, and really quite easy to prepare, with a lot of hands-off time.  I held the seeds aside to roast them, but was sick and forgot to do it, so they sprouted before I got a chance.  Oops!  Watch me demonstrate this recipe on youtube!

*** 3 Stars: Good. At least one of us liked this enough for me to make it again, but not often