This colorful vegetarian stuffed delicata squash recipe is filled with chickpeas and a pistachio, parsley, and orange pesto. Garnish stuffed delicata squash with pomegranate kernels.

Half a delicata squash hollowed out and roasted and stuffed with parsley and pistachio pesto and garnished with pomegranate kernels on a white plate with orange sauce.

This vegetarian stuffed delicata squash recipe will brighten your tastebuds, plate, and palate.

Delicata squash skin can be eaten, unlike most other winter squashes.

Vegetarian Stuffed Delicata Squash Variations

Delicata squash stuffing is versatile and can be made with what you have in the kitchen.

Just remember that the cooking method remains the same. Cook the halves first, stuff, and then bake again to warm up the ingredients.

Some ideas are:

Switch out the beans. Try cannellini, pinto, black beans, or lentils
Add a different herb instead of parsley. Try dill, rosemary, thyme, or basil.
Add a spice or a herb. Check out cumin, curry, Italian seasoning or cayenne.
Change the nut: sunflower seeds, almonds, brazil nuts, cashews

Make Stuffed Delicata Squash In Advance

Coordinating stovetops and ovens with meals during Thanksgiving is difficult. This stuffed delicata squash recipe is designed to avoid the last minute coordination time crunch on Thanksgiving day.

The delicata squash can be cooked while the turkey rests and cools. The pomegranate can be deseeded the day before. The parsley and pistachio pesto and sauce can be made in the morning.

Thanksgiving usually has a lot of food, so you want to look for and use the smallest delicata squash you can find to not overload the portion size of the rest of the meal.

This roasted and stuffed delicata squash recipe was developed for the Post & Courier special Thanksgiving edition in Charleston, SC.

Things In My Kitchen:

Microplane Zester - for zestin' them oranges
Old School Juicer - for juicin' them oranges
Tomato Corer - for de-seeding the squash by running it up the middle of the halved squash. Much easier than using a spoon.

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Vegetarian Stuffed Delicata Squash with Pistachio Pesto

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EatSimpleFood.com

This colorful vegetarian stuffed delicata squash recipe is filled with chickpeas and a pistachio, parsley, and orange pesto and is garnished with pomegranate kernels.

Author: beckie
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Yield: 6
Category: Main Dish
Method: Stovetop / Oven
Cuisine: International
Diet: Gluten Free

Ingredients

3 small delicata squash, halved and seeded
1 small bunch parsley (~ ¾-1 cup chopped), chopped finely
¾ cup pistachios, shelled, roasted, salted, and chopped
16 oz canned chickpeas, drained & rinsed
zest from 3 valencia oranges
5 valencia oranges, zested, peeled, supremed, and then chopped
all orange juice reserved from the 5 chopped oranges
2 + tablespoon olive oil, divided
½ teaspoon salt plus more to taste
pinch black pepper
1 pomegranate for garnish, seeded - optional

Instructions

Roast The Delicata Squash halves

Preheat oven to 425F.
Lightly oil a baking sheet (use aluminum or high heat parchment for easy clean up).
Cut the delicata squash in half lengthwise and take out the seeds with a spoon.
Baste the cut inside edges and the cavity of the squash with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Place squash, cut side down, on an aluminum lined and oiled baking sheet.
Bake uncovered for ~ 25 minutes or until soft and the cut edges are starting to brown.
Take out of the oven and flip squash around to get ready to stuff with filling.
Reduce the oven to 350F when the squash is done roasting.

Make the filling:

Deseed the pomegranate. Wear an apron for this part as the juice stains. Fill a large bowl with water. Score the outside of the pomegranate, like you are going to cut in half. Scoring is a shallow cut to get through the rind of the pomegranate but should not cut into the seeds. Gently "wiggle" and twist and pull the fruit in half. Work with the pomegranate under water and remove the seeds. Most of the pith will float to the top. Drain with a strainer and pick out any remaining pith. Set aside for garnish.
Zest six of the oranges and set zest aside.
Cut off the remaining orange rind and dice the oranges. Reserve any orange juice (including what is on the cutting board) and add any and all juices to a small pan.
In a bowl combine: parsley, pistachios, chickpeas, orange zest, oranges, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Stuff the squash with the filling.
Bake uncovered on the same baking sheet ~ 5-10 minutes or until the filling is warm.

Make the sauce:

Bring the small pan of orange juice to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, ~ 10 minutes or until reduced by half. Remove from heat. The juice will continue thickening as it cools. You should have ~ ¾ cup of the reduced juice, meaning ~ 1 tablespoon each to drizzle over each delicata squash at the end.

Put it all together

Add a drizzle of the reduced orange sauce over the top of the squash and sprinkle on pomegranate kernels. Add salt to taste.

Notes

This recipe was edited Oct 1, 2025 to dice the oranges instead of supreming them. Supreming is cutting the segmented sections from the oranges by removing the membranes from the flesh.