Wednesday, September 11; Vegan Mofo Day 11

Stuffed Delicata Squash and Creamed Spinach

Rating: 4

So we got a ton of winter squash from our CSA when they closed up for the season. They’re not our favorite things in the world, so we’ve been trying to find creative ways to use them. A few weeks ago, we made Five Spice Delicata Squash from Appetite for Reduction and loved it. The other day I pulled out my Candle Café and Candle 79 cookbooks. I realized I’d been neglecting them and needed to remedy that. Both books are full of recipes that are surprisingly easy to make and are ridiculously good. I found the squash recipe in the Candle Café book. It calls for mushrooms, which Seth is not a fan of (he hates them and refuses to touch them) so I picked up a package of Trader Joe’s baked tofu (savory flavor) to replace them with. Normally, I would marinate and bake my own tofu but I honestly just didn’t feel like it. The rice cooked while I prepped and then roasted the squash, and chopped the shallots, garlic, tofu and herbs for the filling. I kind of undercooked the squash a little, even though I left it in the for longer than the recipe called for. I think the issue was that I did it in the toaster oven since we were splitting just one squash between the two of us and the pan fit in there. It wasn’t raw or anything, just a little underdone at the thick spots at the ends. I made a quarter recipe of the filling and had a ton left over. The book calls for 4 squashes and says that it is four servings, but I had at least enough stuffing left for another squash. It was really yummy on it’s own, so it’ll make a good lunch. The book also suggests serving it with mushroom gravy. There they go with the ‘shrooms again. I thought it sounded a little odd, gravy on a sweet squash, but I decided to make some to go with it. Instead of a mushroom gravy, I went with our stand-by, Happy Herbivore Brown Gravy. A funny thing happened when I started making it. I turned my back to take the squash out of the oven so I could put the filling in, and when I turned back to the stove, the flour & nooch I was toasting for the gravy were all but on fire. Smoke was billowing out of the pan. Sigh. Down the drain and start over. I had to laugh though. That kind of thing happens to me. All. The. Time. Oh well. The second batch was fine, and it was really good on the squash, so that was a win. I also prepped the cream sauce for the spinach recipe (in the Candle 79 book), while the rice and squash were cooking and just set it aside until I was ready for it. We love this recipe, but I don’t make it that often. It’s a little more work than I normally like to do for a quick side dish, and it’s also really rich and probably not the healthiest way to cook spinach. It’s so good, though. I made a half batch because it makes a lot. We had about a serving leftover, which will be great with the leftover filling for lunch.