Curried Quinoa-Stuffed Kabocha Squash
Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes
Total Time: 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes
Servings: 6 servings
Author: Heather Nicholds
Mix nutmeg with curry spices, toast them into a quinoa pilaf, and pile atop a super soft roasted kabocha squash.
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 cup quinoa, or millet
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
- 1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced (or 1 tsp ground)
- 1 cup water
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1/2 cup celery, chopped
- 1 apple, chopped
- 2 Tbsp raisins
- 1 kabocha squash, or buttercup, hubbard or butternut
- drizzle olive oil
- pinch sea salt
Prep the squash for the oven, by cutting in half and scooping out the seeds. You can either roast as halves (takes longer) or cut into wedges (takes a bit less time). With your hands, tub a small amount of oil and salt onto the surface of each piece of squash. Pierce each piece several times with a fork. Put them on a baking tray and put in the oven at about 350-375 F for about 30-45 min.
Once that's in the oven, start on the pilaf. Put the spices in a small pot on medium-low heat to toast (dry) until fragrant, then add the quinoa to toast a few minutes. Add the wine, onion and ginger and saute a few minutes. Add the water, bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer and cover with a lid. Leave this to cook 15 minutes or so, stirred fairly often to keep it from sticking to the bottom.
Once the quinoa is cooked (soft and has absorbed all the water), add the vegetables and fruit and stir to combine. Let this cook a few minutes, or even just let it sit in the pot with the lid on after you turn off the heat and it will soften up quite a bit.
You can either serve the pilaf as is, scooped into the squash halves/wedges, or bake it inside the squash for 20 minutes or so.
*Note: You could use the cranberry-thyme stuffing recipe instead of the curry-spiced stuffing if you prefer.
If you have trouble finding a kabocha squash, this will work wonderfully with any winter squash – buttercup, hubbard or butternut would be the best ones. You can also make things faster by using an eggplant, zucchini or tomato instead of the squash! Just scoop out the insides to roast, and add the insides to the pilaf. Calories: 123kcal | Carbohydrates: 25g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Sodium: 19mg | Potassium: 219mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 4950IU | Vitamin C: 14.9mg | Calcium: 40mg | Iron: 2mg