Ellen vs. Butternut Squash: Part 1

The opponent: Butternut Squash

• orange flesh
• nutty/sweet taste
• pretty much interchangeable with pumpkin, sweet potato and most other types of squash
• a pain in the REAR to carve
• funny looking

((psst…Mama got me a BEAUTIFUL orchid at the farmer’s market.  LOVE. IT. It had to make an appearance))

I participated in a butternut squash challenge this week.

SO much fun!

 Especially because it got me to tackle a butternut squash and make something that wasn’t soup.

(creativity counted)

I had such a blast looking up recipes, deciding which seemed the most delicious and then having a marathon cooking day (while Daniel worked a Sunday at the office poor guy) where I was free to experiment and royally fail and swear and taste and take my sweet time and produce something freakin delish that I never would have made otherwise.

I also got to think.

Cooking is therapeutic.

Then you get to eat.

And spend an evening with some really cool people eating delicious treats.

What is better than that?

In part 1 of Ellen vs. Butternut Squash I’ll show you nut/sage stuffed butternut squash…my main dish for the challenge.

Part 2 will bring butternut squash parfaits AND butternut squash hand pies (which is fancy for POPTARTS) with maple glaze.

Yep.  2 desserts. I’ll tell you about that later.

It will be awesome.

Ready for this? Let the battle begin!

Before you do ANYTHING

Off with its head!!

And chop it in half! (This IS a battle after all…show that squash who’s boss)

Also scoop out those seeds and KEEP THEM!

More about that later…

I clearly struggled with the chopping in half part.

This one became puree so it’s ok.  A prettier one got stuffed but not photographed.

Silly me.

All things butternut squash start with a nice long roast in the oven to make it soft.

Which basically means all of this took me forever…not gonna lie.

For the stuffed nonsense I’m going to recommend you do as I say not as I do.

The original recipe was for a stuffed delicata squash.

A delicata squash looks like a long oval with seeds all the way down the length of its body which you can scoop out and fill with tasty mixtures.

A butternut squash only has seeds in the round bottom part of its body.

Oops.

I ended up doing this awkward/frustrating-because-my-knives-suck chopping a well in the neck thing so I could put the filling in more of the squash.

It worked just fine and tasted good and everything butttttt……

Just save yourself the agony and fill a delicata squash.  The filling is the best part anyway.

Here are the things that make this amazing

Nuts+Sage=Faux Sausage.

One might even go so far as to call it faux-sage if one was that kind of person.

For real.

It’s the weirdest thing… but it smells divine and tastes even better.

Trust.

After a quick chop of nutoniongarlisage (it’s this new spice…that I made up just now…) and a little stir with a bit of creaminess and an awkward chopping-a-bigger-well deal and a nice long roast in the oven…

You end up with a hearty, comforting, crunchy-creamy meal that’s kinda like fall time on your plate.

Round 1: Ellen wins!

Faux-sage Stuffed Butternut Squash

Recipe adapted from Nut-Stuffed Delicata Squash

• Olive Oil
• 1 1/2 medium onions finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• some pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped
• 1/3 cup almonds, chopped
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/3 cup cashews, chopped
• 1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 butternuts squash (if you’re crazy…or just use delicata…seriously use delicata) halved lengthwise

**Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

1. Heat olive oil in a medium frying pan, add onions & garlic and cook until softened.

2. Add the sage and cook for 1 minute

3. Set aside, and add nuts to the pan

4. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs and combine them with the cheese and yogurt

5. Stir in 1 teaspoon of salt & sprinkle with pepper

6. Add the nuts to the mixture and fill each of the halves of squash

7. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. The squash should be soft when tested with a knife. Top with some sprinkles of cheese and dig in!

by the way

I have obviously changed the look around here again.

What do you think?

I need to figure out how to incorporate Sabrina’s awesome banner….technical difficulties….

Thanks for stopping by! Part 2 coming soon!

❤ Ellen