This past weekend it rained – like, a lot. I had a bunch of ingredients ready in the fridge for recipe creation, but even with floor-to-ceiling windows in my condo, no amount of white foam board reflectors and Lightroom post-processing was going to create a decent setting for food photography.
Luckily, there’s been a really great recipe waiting in my “to-post” folder for a few weeks, and seeing as Thanksgiving is right around the corner for those of you living in the US, I figured it’d be a perfect way to kick off November.
When I was growing up, the whole sweet-and-savoury combo was something my taste buds just couldn’t handle. Sweet n salty popcorn? Not for me. Trail mix with dried fruit and salted nuts? Pass. Chutney with my Indian food? No thanks. I didn’t even like cranberries on my turkey because in my mind at the time, ketchup was the only way to go.
But these days, I can’t seem to get enough. Evidently I also can’t get enough of stuffing vegetables with vegetables, because oops – I’ve done it again.
This Twice-Baked Stuffed Butternut Squash is full of everything fall, and while it might look and sound like a lot of work, just trust me on this one: it’s actually really easy. If you make it the next time you have company over, I’m pretty sure they’ll be impressed!
After halving the squash lengthwise and scooping out the seeds, you’ll need to bake it face-up in the oven for a while in order to soften the flesh. Otherwise, you’ll only have the little concave areas at the end to stuff, and that’s simply not enough!
While the squash is cooking, you can prepare the quinoa mixture. After that, it’s a matter of scooping out some of the baked squash to create two nice cozy nooks for your stuffing, cramming as much as you can in there, and popping it back in the oven again. About 20 minutes later, it’ll come out looking all golden, gorgeous, and ready to be served.
If you’re wondering, “how is one supposed to serve this dish?” I’ve found that it works best to slice the squash cross-wise into segments a few inches thick. Since it’s been in the oven for a while, the skin will have softened and a knife should slide through fairly easily. You can then simply peel the skin off the flesh for each segment.
Click here to see the recipe featured over on Greatist.com.
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Speaking of holiday sides, I figured those of you in the US might be starting to think about your holiday menus. (And for my fellow Canadians, a delicious plant-based side dish is good for any night of the week, right!?) Here’s a few to feast your eyes on from some of my blogger friends around the web.
So tell me…
- Favourite way to stuff a squash?
- Have you created any great healthy side dishes lately? Tell me about them (and feel free to link up if you like!)
What a stunning recipe! Thanks so much for including one from my site in this amazing post 🙂
Thank YOU for the awesome contribution, Alisa!
What a unique recipe – I love the idea of getting into squash recipes this time of year and it is SO DANG PRETTY!
Thanks lady! 🙂
Seriously, you always come up with the most creative ideas!
These photos all so stunning! Appreciate the much effort you’ve put in sharing with us with your cooking and recipe steps. Your ideas are so much of creative which I cant think of. Nice!