Quinoa stuffed Sweet Dumpling Squash

Hello, all!

Remember these guys from the Pumpkin Patch?

The green & white ones are called Sweet Dumplings. Have to love the name :)

Tonight's recipe was adapted from a recipe on www.themamabee.com

Quinoa Stuffed Sweet Dumpling Squash with Gruyère Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 small winter squash (Sweet Dumpling, acorn)
• olive oil
• 1 small sweet onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped English walnuts
• handfull of fresh spinach
• about 1 cup cooked quinoa (or other whole grain like rice or couscous)
• 1/2 cup grated gruyere cheese

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Carefully cut out the top of each squash (like a pumpkin) and remove the seeds/stringy bits. A grapefruit spoon works great for this!

Spray the inside of each squash with cooking spray (or smear with olive oil) and put face-down on a baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until soft (my squash were bigger and took about 25 minutes).

Meanwhile, prepare yourself about 1 cup of Quinoa*. Or rice, or cous cous.

Quinoa usually uses a ratio of 2:1 fluid to quinoa. I used 2 cups chicken broth 1 cup Quinoa. Rinse the quinoa in a fine strainer (to remove the bitter saponins) and then combine it with the chicken broth in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cover for 20 minutes. This amount will make MUCH more than you need for this recipe - I made extra quinoa because I like to eat it with cinnamon sugar for breakfast :)

Next, chop up an onion. Sautee up in a pan with some olive oil til tender. Add the walnuts and spinach until it is wilted. Mix in about 1 cup quinoa, or however much looks like it will fit in your squash!

After my squash was cooked, I cut them in half to be able to stuff them better. Don't you love my cute little Le Crueset dishes?

Next, the recipe calls for them to be topped with the shredded Gruyère and put back in the oven for 20 more minutes until the cheese is all melty (see suggestions below). Here is what they looked like when they were done. Mmmmm!

If I make this recipe again, I would do some things differently next time. Including:

• Buy smaller squash. Mine were a little big so didn't have as "sweet" of a flavor. You could also use acorn, butternut, or any sweet squash
• Use quinoa that is less dry - I would suggest cooking it a few minutes less so it still has some broth. After being cooked in the oven it dried out a little (you could also solve this by topping it with foil)
• Mix in the cheese with the quinoa instead of putting it on top. I think that would really make this recipe next time :) Oh, and use MORE cheese.

*What is quinoa? Pronounced "keen-wah", it is often mistaken for a grain. However, quinoa is actually a seed native to South America. Like soy, it is unique in that it is one of the only sources of a complete protein that is not from an animal. It has texture similar to cous-cous. I buy mine in bulk for a great price from guess where?... Costco.

Finally... we carved pumpkins last weekend. Not to brag, but I am a self-proclaimed "master" pumpkin carver. However, this year Adam's pumpkin took the cake. I apologize for the lack of picture quality!