You know what I love? I love squash, all kinds of squash – butternut, acorn, zucchini, yellow straightneck, etc. I love to roast, puree, and pan fry squash. I like to use squash in soups, salads, entrees, and even dessert. Hands down this is one of the most versatile vegetables there is. Love it!
A few months ago, I came across a recipe for butternut squash mac n’ cheese. For some dumb reason, I never actually made the dish. I just thought about it a lot. Food is always on my mind. Then about two weeks ago, I decided to get creative in the kitchen. All I knew was that whatever I made had to include butternut squash and kale. Those two things had been sitting in the fridge for over a week, and like I’ve mentioned before, we do NOT like to waste food. So using the recipe I saw in passing as my inspiration, I decided to make lasagna with a kale filling and a butternut squash sauce.
After a quick Google search on “butternut squash sauce,” I came across this recipe by Ashley at Edible Perspective. I scanned the ingredient list and got to work. Now if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that my propensity to do everything quickly gets me in trouble sometimes. Luckily, that wasn’t the case this time around. Despite the fact that I looked at the recipe for all of 10 seconds, the sauce came out great. Phew! The not so great thing was that I because I modified the original recipe a bit and didn’t measure or write anything out, I had nothing but a picture on Instagram to show for it. Sorry about that!
No worries though because I’m about to more than make up for it. I recreated the butternut squash sauce, and this time it was even better than take one.
Same scenario – an “almost too old to eat” butternut squash and a package of mushrooms led to a unique meal on Tuesday night.
I present to you…mushroom and onion quinoa with a creamy butternut squash sauce.
This simple dish was so flavorful and full of texture – a little meaty from mushrooms, chewy from the quinoa, and sweet and spicy from the sauce. It makes for great leftovers as well.
All I did to prepare the vegetables was sauté them in a little bit of olive oil with some chopped garlic, salt, and black pepper. After the quinoa was done cooking, I mixed it in with the veggies. When we were ready to eat, I portioned out the quinoa and topped it off with lots of sauce. Simple yet incredibly delicious!
Butternut Squash Sauce
Adapted from this recipe
1 medium butternut squash
1 cup vegetable broth
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 handfuls cherry tomatoes
1/2 small sweet onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic
1/2 roasted red pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoon Indian chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Peel and cube the butternut squash (tip: use a spoon to scoop out the seeds). Add squash to boiling water. Cook until tender – about 25-30 minutes. Drain the squash and allow to cool. Add the rest of the ingredients to a high-powered blender adding the squash last. Blend until combined. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
Oh butternut squash, how I love thee!
What’s your favorite vegetable AND what’s your favorite way to eat it?
I love butternut squash! The last one I had was ginormous so I had to keep finding things to do with it! I’m bookmarking this one!
This sounds wonderful! It took me a long time to make the butternut squash mac n’ cheese. I just kept thinking about it instead. haha
It must be butternut week. I made a curry butternut soup that I’m posting next week. it is my favorite of the winter squashes!
OOoh.. that soup looks so good.. and it’s great you made it in that blender. I so need to get one. Have a great weekend Parita. And yes, you should cover like all of the caribbean and south america, i’m telling you the tickets are much cheaper out of Miami. Do it while you are still in FL. 🙂
I really love butternut squash…I usually just roast it in the oven with olive oil and cumin. This looks really delicious!
I hope you have a fantastic weekend…
Love love butternut squash, especially roasted in the oven or in soup form! People seem to love kabocha but butternut wins in my book! Unfortunately it’s not available in Mumbai but I always make up for it when I’m in London (read: eat excessive amounts)! Hope you’re having a great weekend, P!