Thursday, October 08, 2009

VeganMoFo Post #4: Baked Delicata w/Herbed Stuffing

We picked up the farm share tonight and while I'm usually not so down with my CSA's recipes..this one caught my eye because a. it's vegan and b. I had most of the ingredients in the cash-strapped Gemusings kitchen. Oh, you may or may not remember that I had a wonderful summer with a few trips. Notably a big one to NYC. In the words of Edith Pilaf "Je ne regrette rien!" I regret nothing. Well, except that it left the ole budget in serious needs of some belt tightening. So begins the Gemusings Bare Cupboard Challenge. Just in time for VeganMoFo. Oh crap. This should be..fun?! Sure! Recipe below with my cheapskate substitutions as needed:

Baked Squash with Herbed Stuffing
(from the Rolling Prairie Cookbook by Nancy O'Connor..recipe shared by my CSA)

2 delicata squash (CSA gave me three..I used them all)
1 tbsp. olive oil (we have like 1 tbsp. of olive oil left..okay, now we have none)
1 med. leek, chopped (luckily I had these)
1 sm. apple, finely chopped (0ut of apples..used applesauce..surprise..it worked!)
2 stalks celery, chopped (had 'em)
2-3 cups bread cubes, 1/2" (from the bag in the freezer of stale bread ends softened in the micro)
1/2 cup veg. broth (from a cube..almost out..will have to resort to the yucky powdered stuff soon)
3/4 tsp. salt
pepper
2 tbsp. chopped parsley

Cut squash, remove seeds (dry and save for goos if you've got 'em!), and baked at 350 for 40 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the leek, celery, and apple. Saute until tender..about 10 minutes. Add bread cubes. Pour veg broth over the mixture, stirring to evenly distribute. Stir in the salt, pepper and the parsley. Mix well. Remove the stuffing from the heat. Heap the filling into the squash shells. Cover and return to the oven for another 20 minutes. Serves 4.

This recipe turned out pretty well but it was missing something. Luckily I caught it before it went into the oven: SAGE!! Is it just me or is stuffing not stuffing without sage? This helped round out the taste and made it feel a little more festive. I might save this recipe for Thanksgiving day.

And last but not least, some edible flowers are still going strong in the garden. I'm drying them on drying racks. Never done this so I hope it works okay. I've got a ton of lavender to dry too. For certain special little somebodies' winter diet:


And speaking of the budget-conscious, the squirrels don't have to tighten their belts this year. Supposedly there is acorn explosion this fall. The squirrels can't keep up. Luckily for Squirrelly and her kids..like this little guy!

5 comments:

Jes said...

I've been tromping through my uncles's acorns all day today--the squirrels here are set!

And that stuffin' stuffed delicata squash? Super rad!

Felicity said...

Yes, stuffing definitely needs sage in it.

Squirrels rock.

For the Love of Guava said...

mm.... why does it look so creamy and delicious??? No cream is there?

I'll have to try this... although the last delicata squash I had wasn't my fave... but the stuffing... nom nom nom

For the Love of Guava said...

oohh... is it the apple sauce???

Amanda said...

Guava--it might be the white bread cubes (I did a mix of wheat and white) and the applesauce (Eden brand is so white looking for whatever reason!).

Mihl--I think you could definitely try it with another kind of squash. The stuffing wasn't really that sweet..you could always leave out the applesauce and add extra broth for a more savory taste! I think I'll be trying this with different kinds of squash soon 'cause my farm share just informed me that they are out of delicata! Boo!