Spiced Black Bean and Cauliflower Stuffed Acorn Squash

The thing with having an abundance of squash in the house, and having the abundance keep growing (we get a lot of squashes at farm share) is that I need to cook just about every meal with said abundance, which I am totally on happy to do. I welcome all the squash. I am excited about all the squash. I could eat al the squash all day, everyday. And I do. But that is me. The mr and the others the I sometimes cook for, they are not as squash crazy as me and get sick of plain old roasted squash so I am trying to change it up and make new and interesting things out of the squash so no one gets bored with it.

Yes, I know stuffing an acorn squash is hardly a new idea, but this squash is not stuffed with the usual rice and stuff, it stuffed with lots of black beans and cumin and chili powder spiced cauliflower (and a few other things). The combination of all the flavors with the acorn squash really hit all the right spots for a tasty, not boring squash meal. It is a brilliant combination of flavors that even the not so keen on squash person will love.

That is my opinion of course but it will be your opinion too after you make and eat these. We will brilliant together.

To the stuffed squash.

The stuff. An acorn squash, some cauliflower, cooked black beans, an onion, and a few kale leaves. Also need some cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper. salsa, and olive oil.

Start by cutting the squash in half and scooping out all the seeds.

Place the squash open side down on a baking sheet or in a skillet lightly oiled and then stick into a hot oven to roast.

After the squash goes in, dice up the onion and cauliflower into small little pieces.

Place the chopped stuff onto a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss with the cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Get that into the oven too.

Roasted, and ready. Stop, do not eat it all, but you might want too, it is so freaking good.

And once this guy in fork tender, its ready as well.

Scoop out a bit of the cooked squash from each side making the well bigger. More room to stuff.

Get everything together. Chop the kale, grab a bowl.

The black beans, salsa, scooped out cooked squash go into bowl. Add in the roasted cauliflower and onion and the chopped kale and mix.

Now stuff each side. Get as much in as you can, mound it as high as you can and place back into oven to bake for a little bit longer.

Cooked and slightly crispy in all the right ways.

These stuffed suckers are everything we all wanted and didn’t know we needed. Fantastic, and all the more when serves with extra salsa, sliced avocado, and a wedge of lime.

Go get at it.

Bye!

-C

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Spiced Black Bean and Cauliflower Stuffed Acorn Squash

Makes 2 stuffed halves. This recipe is very easy to fiddle with and can easily be double or tripled.

• 1 medium sized acorn squash

• 1 1/2 cups cooked black beans

• 1/4 head of cauliflower (about 2 cups chopped before roasting)

• a small onion

• a few kale leaves

• 1/4 cup thick and chunky salsa

• 2 teaspoons cumin

• 1 teaspoon chili pepper

• salt and pepper

• olive oil

• Avocado, lime, extra salsa (optional)

Preheat oven to 400

Slice acorn squash in half and scoop out all the seeds. (seeds can be roasted). Place both halves cut side down on a lightly oiled baking sheet or oven safe skillet and place in oven to roast for about 30-35 minutes or until the squash is fork tender.

Once squash is in oven, dice the onion and cauliflower into small pieces and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss together with the cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Place into oven along with the squash. Roast for 15-20 minutes or until the cauliflower is lightly browned and tender.

When the cauliflower is roasted and squash is cooked, get all the rest of the ingredients ready. Dice up the kale . Take each side of squash and scoop out about an inch more of cooked squash, leaving a good sized well. Place cooked squash into a bowl and kind of mash it up. Add in the beans, the salsa, the kale, and the roasted cauliflower and onions. Season with salt and pepper and mix it all up. Take filling and fill the squashes, stuffing as much as you can in and mounding it on top. Place the halves back onto baking sheet or skillet and place back into oven for 10-15 minutes until nice and browned and slightly crispy on top. Pull from oven and serve. Although not necessary, extra salsa, avocado, a lime are much appreciated.

Butter Bean Cabbage Rolls

A lot of times I make food that I don’t nessasrily care to eat because well, I love to make for other people. Take all the cakes, I love to make cake, it makes me so happy to make a cake, but I don’t eat cake. I never eat cake.

This is not one of those times. I basically made these cabbage rolls all for me. Sure I shared them with the mr because it was dinner but honestly, he was’t the biggest fan (he hate celery). And to be honest, I was glad he didn’t really like them because these things were bonkers amazing to me whichh means I got to eat them all myself. In fact I thought they were so good that I made them twice this week. And not just because I have a shit load of cabbage right now, (I stocked up on cabbage and have like 15 heads in the pantry and stuffed in the fridge), although it helped that I do.

I ♥️ cabbage.

And now I ♥️ these cabbage rolls.

To the rolls!

The stuff. A head of cabbage, a can of butter beans (cooked from dried beans or canned), crushed tomato (also home made or canned), a couple stocks of celery, a carrot, an onion, some garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, and a little olive oil.

Start by getting the cabbage leaves to roll the filling in. You are basically just going to dunk the whole head of cabbage, with the core removed, into a big pot of boiling water until the outer leaves are tender enough to peel away. You are going to want to 12-14 nice leaves so peel away using tongs. Once you have all the leaves, remove the rest of the cabbage ans place the leaves back into the pot to cook until completely tender and soft. Remove then from the water and place them into a bowl and let them cool.

Meanwhile the filling. Take roughly half of the remaining cabbage and rough chop it up along with the celery, carrot, onion and garlic.

Place it all into food processor and pulse until its a small chunky chunk consistancy.

Add a splash of olive oil to a pan then dump the veggies on in. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and the Italian seasoning then set on a medium heat on the stove to start to cook the veggies a bit.

One the veggies are out and cooking, pulse up the butter beans in the food processor until not quite smooth. Some chunk is good.

Veggies a bit cooked.

Dump the veggies back into the food processor with the beans, along with a little of the crushed tomato. Pulse a few times.

That is the filling. Time to roll.

Pat each leave dry and lay flat on counter. If your cabbage leaves have thick ribs you can slice them down the middle, just not to far up into the leaf. Add about 1/3 of a cup of the filling (add less for smaller leaves) and then roll as tightly as you can like a burrito without the filling coming out. Repeat until all the filling is gone.

Place all of the rolls nice and cozy into a oven safe pan, preferably the pan you have been using to cook the veggies in (you want them to fit close together, it helps then from opening up during cooking ) and cover then all up with crushed tomato.

Now all you need to do is stick the whole thing in the oven.

Cooked and looking good.

If you got it, spinkled with some green scallions and parsley for color and flavor and the all you need to do it eat. Eat one or eat them all because they are freaking fantastic!

P.S. Left overs are just as good, if not better cold.

YAY CABBAGE!

Stay cool.

-C

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Butter Bean Cabbage Rolls

• A medium sized head of cabbage

• 2 cups (or 1 can) cooked butter beans

• an onion

• 1 large carrots

• 2 stalks of celery

• 3 cloves garlic

• 3 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes (or a 28 oz can)

• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

• olive oil

• salt and pepper

First thing, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Remove the core from the head of cabbage and place the cabbage head into the boiling water. Gently peal away 12-14 of the outer leaves from the head then remove the head. Place the leaves back into the boiling water until they are soft and plyable. Remove from water and place in a large bowl.

Preheat oven to 400

Rough chop about half of the remaining cabbage head (like a little more then a cup) the carrot, celery, onion, and the garlic and place into a food processor. Pulse until its a small chunk consistency. Add a drizzle of olive oil to a skillet (if you can, use a oven safe skillet the can also be used to bake the rolls in) and dump the veggies in. Sprinkle with the Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, and place on a medium heat to cook for a few minutes. While the veggies are cooking, drain the beans and dump them into the food processsor. Pulse until not quite smooth. After the veggies have started to become fragrant and are not completely raw, dump those veggies back into the food processor with the beans. Add about 1/3 cup of the crushed tomato and pulse until combined.

To assemble the rolls. Pat the leaves dry and lay flat. If a leaf has a really thick rib, cut it down the middle, but not to far up the leaf.. Place about 1/3 cup of filling into each leaf (less if the leaves are small) and roll each one up like a burrito, as tight as you can without ripping the cabbage. Place rolls into oven safe skillet, bumped up against each other if they can. Once all the rolls are assembled and in skillet, pour the crushed tomatoes all over, getting the sauce in between each of the rolls.

And then place the rolls into oven to bake for an hour.

Once the rolls looked cooked and maybe a little crisp on an edge or two, remove and let cool a few minutes before serving.

Chopped parsley and scallions are nice to sprinkle on top if you got it.

Eat, and eat some more. Any left over should be placed into the fridge and eaten just a short few hours later cold, while standing in from of the fridge because these cold are almost better then hot. So good!

Cumin Roasted Pumpkin and Swiss Chard with Red Lentils

Are you as excited about pumpkin season as I am. And not because of pumpkin spice this or that, I am talking about real squash pumpkin. I am so excited, and have started a stash. I have about 10 sugar pumpkins all through the house. Equal parts fall decor and dinner. Being able to eat your decorations is key to a successful life. I am 100 percent sure about that.

So now that we have established that it’s time to eat pumpkin, we also have to realized that there are more ways to eat pumpkin then in baked goods. Savory pumpkin is just as good, if not better then sweet pumpkin. I mean, it’s a squash and don’t we all love a good ssavory squash situation? If you don’t, well you are in the wrong place my friend.

This dish here pretty much sums up all that I ever want to eat again. Roasted pumpkin with cumin is one of the best things ever. No joke. Swiss chard is definitely my favorite green, besides spinach, (and I love kale, but chard is better then kale too!) and red lentils are my favorite kind of lentils. All I all, this small list of ingredients makes for one heck of a dish. I was pre making this for dinner for Barb and the mr. and ended up making something else for dinner so I could eat and save it all for myself. I did not share one bit of this and feel zero bad about it. I mean, I made it so it is mine. They had chili, I secretly ate this.

It’s come to that. I am hiding my pumpkin and lentil dish. What is wrong with me? Ha!

Now to the best pumpkin dish ever!

The stuff. A sugar pumpkin, some swiss chard, an onion, red lentils, a few cloves of garlic. cumin, salt and pepper, and olive oil.

Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop the seeds out (save for roasting later), and chop into mouth sized chunks. Dice the onion up, and remove the stalk and thicker part of the rib from the chard leaves and dice up the stalk. Stick the leaves to the side.

Place all the chopped up stuff onto a baking sheet, drizzle with a little bit of oil, dump on some cumin and sprinkle with salt and pepper then toss it all around.

A fall roast ready for the oven.

Once veggies are in oven roasting, make the lentils. Water and lentil in a pot, bring to a boil, turn on low and let cook until lentils are done. Once cooked, sprinkle in a pinch of salt.

Also mince up the garlic and rough chop up the chard leaves.

Fall veggies are looking nice and roasted and tasting all so good. Toss in the minced garlic and chopped chard leaves and pop the baking sheet back into the oven for a little longer just until the garlic and leaves are cooked too.

Look at that. So good.

Now you have your lentils and the cumin roasted pan of goodness. If you have a lime, cut that up too because it will make this all just perfect. Perfect I tell you.

Here it is. A bowl of red lentils, piled high with cumin roasted pumpkin and chard with a fresh squeeze of lime. Once you aat a few bites, tell me. Best fall dish ever, right!?!

Have a fantastic fall weekend.

-C

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Cumin Roasted Pumpkin and Swiss chard with Red Lentils

serve 2-3

• 1 pie pumpkin

• 1 bunch of Swiss chard (between 5-6 large stalks, more if the stalks are small)

• 1 yellow onion

• 2-3 cloves garlic

• 1 cup died red lentils

• 3 cups water

• 2 tablespoons cumin

• A lime (optional)

• salt and pepper

• olive oil

Preheat oven to 400

Start by cutting pumpkin in half and removing seeds, (place seeds aside for later to roast), then cut the pumpkin into inch or so cubes. Grab the chard, remove the stalks and ribs from the leaves, place leaves to the side, and dice the stalks up. Dice onion into medium sized chunks and place all of what you have just chopped on a baking sheet. Drizzle a teaspoon or two of oil all over. Spinkle on the cumin and a pinch of salt and pepper and toss around. Evenly distribute the veggies on the pan and stick into the oven to roast, for about 25 minutes, or until the pumpkin and chard stalks are fork tender. In the meantime rough chop the leaves and mince the garlic. When the pumpkin and chard are just about done, remove pan from oven and toss in the garlic and leaves. Place pan back into oven for another 8-10 minutes or until the leaves have cooked. Remove from oven.

While the veggies are roasting, make the lentils. Place the water and lentils into a medium sized pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down to low, giving it a stir ever few minutes until lentils are soft.Once cooked, remove from heat and season with pinch of salt salt.

When the lentils are cooked and the veggies are roasted, it’s time to eat. Spoon lentils into a bowl and top with roasted veggies. Season with more salt and pepper if needed and cut up lime (optional) and squeeze juice all over. Eat right away and save any for later.

Fresh Dill and Veggie Quinoa Salad

I feel like this salad is kind of a summery salad, or better yet, a salad that highlights all the best of what summer has to bring. All the fresh tender dill that is still growing (but not for long) , all the brightly colored and amazing veggies that are being harvested and are nearing the end (bye fresh cucumbers.) This salad might just be my little last hurrah of summer cooking before it is all root veggies and dried herbs and hot and hearty food. And not going to lie and say that I am sad to see summer go because I am so so ready for it to be over, but I will miss all the fresh fresh produce. And I will especially miss all the fresh dill because fresh dill is seriously the best.

Eat up what is left of summer now before it’s too late!

The stuff. Quinoa, a bunch of dill, a cucumber, a pepper, an onion, and some cherry tomatoes. Also a clove of garlic, some salt and pepper, and red wine vinegar.

Mince the garlic, chop the onion, mince the pepper and the cucumber, half the tomatoes, and last but noblest, rough chop the dill.

All that goodness goes into. big bow, along with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and the vinegar Tossed around and left to meld.

Uncooked quinoa with water turns to cooked quinoa

Quinoa meets the bowl of veggies

And after a good mix, viola!

You got yourself a yummers fresh dill and veggie quinoa salad.

-C

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Fresh Dill and Veggie Quinoa Salad

serves 3-5 as a side or 2 as a meal

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa

• 2 cups water

• I bunch fresh dill (like a 1/3 cup chopped… But use as much as you want)

• 1/2 a small red onion

• 1 clove garlic

• 1 small Persian cucumer

• 1/2 of a sweet red or yellow pepper

• handful or two of cherry tomatoes

• 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar

• salt and pepper to taste

Start by cooking the quinoa. Place the water and the uncooked quinoa into a medium sized pot. Place on high heat until sorts to boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and place lid on the pot. Let cook for about 15 minutes, checking at 10 minutes, to see if all the water has absorbed. When it has, remove from heat and let sit for a few more minutes then fluff with a fork.

While the quinoa id cooking, mince the garlic and chop all the veggies into small little pieces. Place into a big bowl. Chop up the fresh dill and toss into bowl too, along with the vinegar and a good sprinkle of salt and pepper. Mix it all around and let sit on the counter for a little so the veggies get nice and vinegary. Once quinoa is cooked and fluffed, dump into the bowl and mix around. Season with more salt and pepper if needed. Eat warm or refrigerate and eat cold. It’s defiantly one of those salads that taste great right away but tastes even better the next day.

Almond Oat Rhubarb Cookies

The rhubarb is ready and I am ready. There will be rhubarb in everything for weeks. But what to start with? I was debating if I should go classic and make a pie, or maybe savory and make a rhubarb tomato soup (going to make that soup later), or maybe just a big batch of jam to stick on and in everything.. Then I remembered  that I had a cookie dream last fall, a dream that I had made almond rhubarb cookie. (that is the extent of my dream memory)  And who am I to ignore a cookie dream? So I starting off rhubarb season with cookies. 

These cookies are all sorts of good. They have oats, almonds, flax, and a vegetable (because we all know that rhubarb is technically a veggies right?) so right there is a good enough excuse to make them. And to eat whenever, including breakfast, because remember, all the good stuff. But don't let that good stuff fool you. These cookies are just as good, if not better then any other cookie. Soft and chewy. So nutty, sweet but not too, and rhubarb all tart and fantastic cutting in to say hey hey hey. These are springtime, any time, cookie time cookies. Dream cookies that are now reality cookies.

Let the rhubarb begin!

The stuff. Almonds, oats and rhubarb. Brown sugar, vegan butter, a flax egg, cinnamon, baking soda, vanilla and salt.

First we need to turn the oats into flour so blend them in a food processor until that happens 

Next up are the almonds. These you want to pulse for about 2-3 minutes they become  more of an almond meal the flour. Don't over blend or else you might end up with almond butter. 

Next up. Sugar, vegan butter, cinnamon, vanilla, ans flax egg all go into a big bowl.

Mix well until all combined and incorporated. 

Now add in the oat flour, almond meal, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.

Stir it up and there you go.. but the rhubarb!

Remove the leave from rhubarb if you haven't already. They will kill you!(or make you violently ill). Chop the rhubarb stalks into small pieces that are roughly the same size as chocolate chip. Some chunks can be a little bit bigger, but you don't want the piece too big or else you will end up with soggy cookies.

Rhubarb goes into cookie batter Mix it all in. 

Scoop out dough onto baking sheet and give them all a good pat to flatten them down a good bit. Place them into the oven for  17-22 minutes to bake. until nice deep golden brown.

Golden brown and baked all nice. Look at those rhubarb chunks. So pretty.

Cookies out on a wire rack to cool and firm up a bit.

So now you eat yourself a cookie. Or two.

-C

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Almond Oat Rhubarb Cookies

makes 18-22 cookies depending on size

• 1 1/2 cups raw almonds

• 1 1/2 cups old fashion oats (gluten free if needed)

• 1/3 cup vegan butter room temperature

• 1 flax or chia egg (1 tablespoon ground seed and 3 tablespoon water)

• 1 cup packed brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

• 2-3 stalks rhubarb (about 1 1/2 cups chopped)

Preheat oven to 350

Add oats to a food processor and blend until the oats turn into flour, which will take about 2 minutes. Dump the now flour into a bowl. Add almonds to the food processor and pulse for 2-3 minutes until the almonds turn into fine meal. Dump into the bowl with oats.

In a large bowl mix together the vegan butter, brown sugar, flax egg, and vanilla until fully incorporated. Add in the oat and almond flours, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda and mix until la dough forms. 

Grab rhubarb and chop into little pieces that are roughly the size of a chocolate chip. Measure out 1 1/2 cups and dump into batter. Mix until incorporated. 

Scoop out cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet and flatten each cookie to aboutt 1/2 inch thick. Place into  preheated oven. and bake for 17-22 minutes (rotate after 12)  or until a nice golden brown on top and bottom. (Depending on your baking sheet and stove, it could take a few minutes longer, just keep your eyes on the cookies!)  Once bakes, place on a wire rack to cool. These cookies are very fragile until they cool off so be careful handling them. 

Let cool and eat. And yes, these are 100% exceptable to eat as a breakfast cookie. 

Left over cookies should be stored in an airtight container at room tempature for 2-3 day, longer in the fridge, and can be frozen .

And eat yourself a cookie. Or two.

Cookie anecdote.  I placed a cookie sheet full of cookies back into a cold oven to store while I was cleaning up the kitchen. And left them there and kind of forgot about they, And then I cranked the oven on to make dinner and a few minutes later smelled something burning. OH fuck... the cookies! I pulled them out just in time to see that I had completely burnt the bottoms. SO PISSED ( I might have raged cried a little). But you know what I did? I cut all the bunt bottoms off and placed the crumbles up un-burnt bits onto a bowl. The mr came home and ate the bowl of crumble and was happy as a clam. And lucky had left out half of the cookies l on the counter so not all were lost. But lessons learned. Cookies crumbles are just as good as whole cookies and always check the oven before turning it on. There might be cookies in there!!!