Do you ever put together a bunch of ingredients and hope to make something delicious, or do you always follow a recipe to the specific ingredients? Lately, I have been experimenting a bit more in the kitchen and coming up with some great new meals for my family. These recipes I am sharing here are, by far, the most delicious new creations I have made for the fall season to date.
Growing up, I don’t ever remember eating butternut squash. It wasn’t something in our home, so it has been a learned food to add to our meals. I started introducing butternut squash when my boys were infants and trying out all the different fruits and vegetables. Butternut squash was on our list of things to try, so we did. Right then and there is was a hit, so I have been adding it to different meals for years now.
One of my sons is vegetarian. While Thanksgiving has a lot of sides to go with our turkey, I wanted to give him a meal all his own, just a special as our traditional holiday turkey dinner. So I looked at what I had in the house and started creating. I knew I wanted to make a main meal for him, and a side dish for the rest of the family, so I ended up with two recipes, both different and both delicious.
Main Meal Butternut Squash
What you will need:
- ½ a butternut squash per person, mostly carved out (keep inside of squash and seeds aside)
- 1 onion
- 1 package of Beyond Beef (or any plant-based meat alternative)
- 5-6 Mushrooms
- ½ a yellow pepper, diced
- Garlic powder, salt & pepper
How to prepare:
Sautee your onion in a pan with olive oil.
- Add in your mushrooms and pepper, and cook until mushrooms are no longer releasing water.
- Add the inside pieces of butternut squash and cook until slightly soft.
- Add the meat alternative and break it up, to mix with vegetables.
- Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder to your preference.
- *optional* blend this mix in a food processor to give a smoother texture.
- Add the mix into one half of the butternut squash.
- Sprinkle (generously) with the shredded cheese of your choice.
- Bake in the oven at 375 until cheese has melted.
This meal is hearty full of flavour. My son loved it and had plenty of leftovers (I ended up with a lot of leftover filling, so I froze it for another meal for another day).
Side Dish Butternut Squash
What you will need:
- ½ a butternut squash per person, mostly carved out (keep inside of squash and seeds aside)
- 1 onion
- 8-10 Mushrooms
- 1 yellow pepper, diced
- Swiss chard, chopped
- ½ cup of chopped pecans
- Garlic powder, salt & pepper
How to prepare:
- Sautee your onion in a pan with olive oil.
- Add in your mushrooms and pepper, and cook until mushrooms are no longer releasing water.
- Add the inside pieces of butternut squash and cook until slightly soft.
- Add the chard and cook until the leaves wilt slightly.
- Add the pecans, and mix everything together.
- Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder to your preference.
- *optional* blend this mix in a food processor to give a smoother texture.
- Add the mix into one half of the butternut squash.
- Sprinkle (generously) with the shredded cheese of your choice.
- Bake in the oven at 375 until cheese has melted.
Friends, if you use nuts in your meals you already know this, but if you are new to it as I was, the pecans added just the right extra flavour and texture to this dish. The peppers and onions were sweet and the butternut squash and chard together were divine. It may (or may not) seem like an odd combination, but I promise you, try it and you will love it.
This dish can absolutely be served on its own as well, so if you are looking for another full vegetarian meal, this it great. You might want to pair it with a salad. At our Thanksgiving dinner, I cut the butternut squash, so each person received a slice on their dish.
The best feeling: creating a meal around produce my boys grew in their garden! My son was not convinced something good could come from this chard – I proved him wrong!
I’m so happy to share these winning recipes with you! My boys really liked these dishes, and I did too. I hope you give them a try for your next holiday meal. They are perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Roast the seeds for a few minutes and add to the top at the end for another flavour and crunch!