154: Stuffed Squash

Stuffin stuff again...just thought this would look really cute, and it does.

Cooking for myself can involve a bunch of moving pieces. I only had one little winter squash left from my share this week, and I had the idea of making a nice mustard green and bulgur stuffing. But not being sure I'd like it and not wanting to be stuck with a ton of this specific stuffing for the rest of the week, I made a batch, cooked up my greens mixture separately, and mixed about what I needed. Now I have some leftover greens and bulgur to use up in vastly different ways if I'd like. It's a good technique to use for other grains as well.

Ingredients:

Bulgur:

1.5 cups veggie stock

1 cup bulgur

Greens:

2 small onions, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 portobello cap, chopped

1 bunch of mustard greens, stemmy bits removed (and nommed while cooking), chopped

~ veggie stock

~ salt, pepper

And last (but not least) 1 winter squash, cap removed, seeded (like a jack-o-lantern)

I started my squash (and cap) in a 350 degree oven, turned upside down. Meanwhile I brought the stock to a boil then poured over the bulgur (which was hanging out in a heat proof bowl). Covered and let that sit while I prepped everything else.

Sweat my onions (in a dry pan with a little salt), then added garlic and portobello. Once those had cooked sufficiently I added my chopped greens and mixed until they wilted. Deglazed with a bit of veggie stock, seasoned as needed. Mixed a small amount of bulgur in and adjusted the seasoning again.

By that time my squash had been in about a half hour, so I took it out, flipped it over, poked a bunch of fork holes in the flesh of the squash, then added my stuffing, popped the cap on, then threw it in the oven.

About a half hour later (a little longer, probably) I took my adorable squash out and nommed. It was good, though I have some reservations. There's something texturally a little meh to me about this kind of squash. I love how smooth butternut gets when roasted, this just felt a little...mealy? Though maybe it needed longer.

It also needed more seasoning, and I realized that while adorable, this style of containerizing the squash is very difficult to eat (though obviously easier once I'd cut it in half). I also would've liked more stuffing- the ratio was a little off. Next time I'd cut it half pole to pole, then mound it in. Actually (per my experimenting), I'd probably just harvest the squash and mix in with the stuffing, but yeah, this was totally adorable and worth it for the one.