In the past week, I’ve made two dishes that have made the house smell like the holidays but this one truly made me lean in very dramatically into Halloween. Because nothing says Fall like a stuffed pumpkin. This dish, Ghapama, hails from Armenia and is a stuffed pumpkin dish synonymous with the country’s holiday season. And I can see why. The end result can feed a crowd and is impressive to cut into. It presents like one of those cakes with a surprise in the middle.

But for this dish, the filling is a bit more savory. It’s stuffed with rice tossed with spices and dried fruits + nuts. I opted for raisins, dried apricots, dried cherries, and pecans, though I imagine a number of other dried fruits from cranberries to plums would work along with walnuts. It smelled like a pumpkin pecan pie. This dish warmed my soul and got me excited for Fall cooking. This may just be added to the holiday cooking dish list for November. I essentially cut it into slices of pumpkin with the rice resting pretty easily on those slice. All around a very flavorful bite.

Recipe I used: https://thearmeniankitchen.com/ghapama-stuffed-baked-pumpkin-recipe/amp/

Overall Level of Effort: 2

Skill Level: Beginner/Intermediate

Would Make it Again? Yes

Additional Notes: For the prep of this, you do need to allow some time to dig out the seeds and guts of the pumpkin, just as if you were getting ready to carve a pumpkin for Halloween. As the recipe called for, I used a 2 1/2-3 lb pumpkin and followed the quantities for rice. This was a bit much for two people and the leftovers were ok the next day, but the pumpkin lost a bit of its luster. So invite some friends over and enjoy this fresh out of the oven.