Beef Loin Roasted Inside a Pumpkin

Photo courtesy of Good Housekeeping

The flavors that form inside the meat and vegetables from being roasted inside of a pumpkin is seriously amazing.  We even pureed the left over flesh of the pumpkin and made a delicious fall pumpkin soup the next day, but you could certainly serve with this dinner the same day as well.
The pumpkin becomes like a crock pot only it adds such incredible depths of flavor that a crockpot could not do.  Unfortunately, in the excitement in creating this wonderful dish idea and executing it, I completely forgot to take pictures of this one.

1 large pumpkin. Large enough to hold your beef loin
1 3-5 lbs beef loin roast (or beef roast of your choice)
2-3  very large russet/baking  potatoes, pealed and cut into bite size chunks
1 large yellow onion, sliced bite sized chunks
1 large red onion, cut into bite size chunks
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can, low sodium crushed tomatoes. Juices removed.
1 tsp dried rosemary, oregano and thyme
1/4 cup red wine
Seasalt
Fresh cracked black pepper

Preheat oven 300*
Cut pumpkin in half, length wise and discard seeds and pulp. Season flesh lightly with sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. Set aside.  Preheat large skillet pan.  Season meat with sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper on all sides, liberally. Pan sear meat on all sides, 2 minutes per side allow to rest.  Place half of the pumpkin, hallow side up inside deep roasting pan then put that on a cookie sheet. Place meat inside one half of the pumpkin.  Assemble potatoes, onions and garlic around the meat.  Combine in bowl, dried rosemary, oregano, thyme, tomatoes and red wine and mix well.  Pour mixture over the meat and potatoes making sure to cover all pretty well. Place other half of the pumpkin on top, forming a seal.
Place in center of the oven and roast for 6 hours. Do not open oven door.
At the end of 6 hours, remove carefully from the oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes before removing the top pumpkin.  It'll be very juicy so it's best to open this over a large container or sink.  Remove roast from pumpkin and place on a plate.  Arrange roasted vegetables around roast. Carve out some of the roasted pumpkin and assemble around the vegetables and beef roast.