Elegant Stuffed Pumpkin

Ingredients

5 pound pumpkin
3 cups brown rice
2 c crumbled dry wheat
1 onion
1 cup celery
2 apples
1 c chestnuts
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup butter

Instructions

Or safflower oil. [ed ...Necessary?] Soy sauce or salt to taste. Cut off top of pumpkin to make a lid. Remove the seeds and scrape out any stringy pulp. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well with hands. Add stock and butter, and mix well, adding soy sauce and salt if desired. Stuffing should be moist but not wet. Pack loosely into pumpkin, replace lid, and bake on oiled cookie sheet for 1 1/2 hours or more at 325 F. It is done when a fork pushes easily through the pumpkin. Transfer to a caserloe dish and serve at the table, scooping out some of the tender pumpkin flesh with each serving of stuffing. If the pumpkin is organically grown, you may eat the skin too. (If you have too much stuffing for your pumpkin, place extra in an oiled casserole, cover, and bake for 1 hour.) The Vegetarian Times Cookbook, p. 290