Stuffed Acorn Squash

We had some crazy weather yesterday so we decided to switch the plans on the menu.  So last night I made stuffed acorn squash, and tonight Jeff is cooking on is outdoor wok, a recipe which will be posted tomorrow.  Some of you may remember I posted a stuffed squash recipe a couple years back from Alton Brown's reportoire on Food Network's website (which can be found here).  This time I kind of took inspiration from him but made up my own recipe as I went along.  I am sorry I dont have a picture this time, I forgot to take one last night, and Jeff took the rest of it to work today for lunch.  I will work on finding a picture for you, or you can look at the one Alton has with his, by clicking on the link provided.

If you are doing this from the Bountiful Basket we got over the weekend, this recipe will use both your acorn squash and your spinach.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

1-4 acorn squashes, depending on size.  Ours was big this time, so I just did one.
1 c cooked rice
1 c pork sausage
2 c chopped spinach (if fresh.  if frozen, only 1 cup) rinsed and shaken dry (or squeezed dry if frozen)
4 oz sliced white button mushrooms
1 tbsp butter (you may need 2 or 3 if you are making multiple squashes)
Optional ingredients: parmesan cheese (about 1/4 cup), toasted pine nuts (about 1/4 cup)

Cut the tops off your acorn squash(s), and scoop out the seeds.  Cut just a little bit off the bottom, just so the squash sits flat on the bottom of your baking dish (only about 1/4 in or less).  Set aside.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a skillet, brown and crumble your sausage.    When sausage is fully cooked, add your mushrooms and cook til they are slightly browned and cooked all the way through.  Add the rice next, stirring til combined well, and then add the spinach, which will probably seem like it's way too big for the pan. Don't worry, it will wilt into everything and shrink quite a bit.  After the spinach has wilted, add your optional ingredients if you choose.

Put half the butter in the bottom of the squash and then fill the cavity with the stuffing, then place the other half of the butter on top, and then top with the top of the squash.  Place in preheated oven and bake for 1 hour.  If you have extra stuffing, you may also bake that for about 15 minutes just before you are ready to take out the squash.

You will know when its done by sticking a fork in it.  It should be soft, but not mushy.  Quarter the squash, and then serve hot.  No need for veggies or meat because its all included.  Enjoy!

ok, I am cheating a bit on this one. its an Alton Brown recipe.

His recipes are just too dang tempting to pass up, and so we are trying this one tonight.

To see full recipe for this dish, go here.
It's stuffed acorn squash, and after dinner, we'll tell you how it turned out.

Later

Ok, so Jeff made this one, and though we havent eaten any of it yet, we have some pointers when you make this. Alton Brown kind of makes things somewhat complicated sometimes, so we made it a couple steps easier.

1. Cook the rice ahead of time, you'll need 1 1/2 cups, but its easier to just make a bunch and use the rest later.

2. Make sure you take your spinach out of the freezer about a day ahead and let it thaw in the fridge. If you forget this, you can thaw it under hot/warm water and then squeeze it dry (you'll have to do that either way).

3. Instead of removing the meat and then cooking the veggies, just add your veggies to your browned sausage. Cook the sausage completely before adding the carrots, celery and onion, then saute the veggies for a minute. Instead of wine, we used chicken stock. Add that after sauteing the veggies, and stir to combine, and let it simmer just a bit. Thhen add your spinach, pine nuts, oregano and rice.

4. We only had one acorn squash so we ended up just baking off the rest of the stuffing in the oven with some parmesan cheese on top.