Now is the perfect time for making a tasty and gorgeous dish like stuffed butternut squash. This delicious vegetable is wonderful on its own. Still, when you stuff it with a savory filling of mild or hot Italian sausage, sweet onion, spinach, cranberries, and pecans, it becomes a thing of epic beauty and deliciousness.
Butternut squash is shaped like a bowling pin and grows on a vine. The wide portion is the blossom end, where the seeds are tidily stored. The outer skin is yellowish tan, but inside, the flesh is orange in color. It has a sweet, nutty taste. As it ripens, the flesh darkens to a deeper shade of orange and becomes even sweeter.
The skin of butternut squash is as tough as shoe leather, so you'll need a sturdy cutting board and a sharp knife to cut it in half lengthwise. I cut a little slice off the rounded side to help it lay flat on the baking sheet.
It's a good source of fiber, vitamins C and A, magnesium, and potassium. Butternut squash is a close cousin to pumpkins. One of the first things you notice is this squash's efficiency in storing the seeds compactly, all in the little round belly. It's quick and easy to scoop out the seeds, leaving you with loads of tasty, easily accessible meat!
Butternut squash has more vitamins A and C than pumpkin and twice as much iron, and it's also a good source of magnesium, vitamin E, and potassium. Compared to pumpkin, it's somewhat higher in calories and complex carbs, but it contains more than twice the amount of dietary fiber.
Most calories come from the carbs they contain, but they're not just any old carbs. Winter squash carbs have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and cholesterol and insulin-regulating properties. Butternut squash is a superfood!
Once you have cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise, lay it belly up on a rimmed baking sheet. You can save clean-up time by putting a layer of foil or parchment paper under the squash. Brush the surface and the cavity liberally with olive oil and salt and pepper it lavishly, like this. Then, turn it over and roast it at 400 degrees, skin side up, for thirty to forty minutes while you prepare the filling.
Add the diced onion to a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet. Cook it on medium-high until the onion is soft, and get a bit of char on it to bring out the sweetness.
Next, add one pound of bulk Italian sausage, one tablespoon of Italian seasoning, and four minced garlic cloves. Cook it with the onion until the sausage is crumbled and has completely lost its pinkness.
Next, add a six-ounce package of fresh spinach you have chopped coarsely. Six ounces of spinach will look like a ton, but it wilts and cooks down amazingly fast; cook for about five minutes.
Finally, add the cranberries and pecans and mix it all up. The filling is fragrant, savory, and beautiful! Keep it warm while you get the squash ready.
Remove the squash from the oven and turn it face up. Use a spoon to scoop out more of the flesh, leaving a hollow center with about an inch all the way around. Save that yummy squash and enjoy it!
Now spoon the yummy filling into the hollow center of the oven-roasted butternut squash, heaping it slightly in the center! That's it! You are ready to serve this beautiful dish as a side or a meal! I suggest mashing the squash you scooped out and serving it right alongside the stuffed Butternut squash!
Garnish with a few extra cranberries and pecan pieces if you like! This stuffed butternut squash brimming with Italian sausage and all the other goodies will make a stunning presentation on your holiday buffet!
Butternut squash is oven-roasted and filled with a savory mixture of Italian sausage, sweet onion, spinach, cranberries, and pecans. This can be a main dish or a side dish.
I had smaller squash, so I roasted two and kept one half for another recipe. I wrapped each half in foil and reheated it the next day in a 300-degree oven until it was warm throughout, and it tasted great!
Learn to enjoy and take advantage of the foods of each season! When you purchase produce that's in season, the flavor will be much better, and the prices much lower! The closer to the source and peak season, the better the quality and taste of the fresh ingredients you buy!
What's great right now? There are loads of wonderful apples and pears in the produce aisle, and watch for beautiful red pomegranates and bright, cheerful orange persimmons. Buy fresh cranberries and freeze them right in the bag to use in recipes all winter long!
Winter squash like pumpkin, butternut, kabocha, acorn squash, and delicata are abundant and will be for the next several weeks.
Sweet potatoes are at their best, as are root vegetables like turnips, beets, and parsnips. For greens, look for kale, chard, and Brussels sprouts. Look for freshly harvested nuts in the fall, too, like almonds, pecans, and walnuts!
This recipe is gluten-free! Here are a couple of delicious gluten-free bar recipes you can make for dessert now that you have turned on the oven! Peanut Butter Oatmeal Banana Bars and Healthy Vegan Chickpea Blondies!
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