Stuffing Stuffed Squash

One of my favorite recipes last fall was a stuffed Moroccan Acorn Squash - however it used ground beef and I'm no longer eating meat. I ran across this recipe on fakefoodfree.com and decided to make it tonight for dinner. Verdict = yummy! I don't think I've met a squash I didn't like. And now I may even experiment with that Moroccan acorn squash substituting some quinoa in for the ground beef. Well that will be for another day. Today I want to share with you the cranberry orange quinoa stuffed squash I made tonight. I used another kind of squash (not acorn, but shaped similarly) that I had gotten at the farmer's market last month. So, feel free to substitute almost any squash for this recipe!

Stuffing Stuffed Squash
serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 small acorn squash or similar
• 1 TB olive oil
• 1 TB butter
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 ribs celery (or 4 ribs celery hearts), sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• zest and juice of one lemon
• 1 1/4 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• 1/4 tsp celery seed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup cubed dried bread/croutons (I used whole wheat)
• 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup - 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut squash in half, remove seeds. Drizzle and coat with a little olive oil Place in a greased baking dish and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Put in oven and bake for 25 minutes.
2. In a large skillet, melt the butter and 1 TB olive oil over med-high heat. Add onion and celery and cook for about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook an additional 1 minute. Next stir in the orange zest, poultry seasoning, dry mustard, celery seed, salt and pepper. Cook 1 minute.
3. Turn off heat and add the bread cubes and cooked quinoa. Stir in the orange juice and then add the broth starting with 1/2 cup. The amount you need will depend on the type of bread you use. You want the stuffing to absorb all the liquid but be moist enough so that you can firmly stuff it into the squash. It should be able to hold its shape when pressed together.
4. Once broth is added and absorbed, stir in the pecans and cranberries. 
5. Once the squash has cooked for 25 minutes, remove and use a spoon to transfer the stuffing into each half and pat down. Bake for another 10-15 minutes (depending on size/type of squash - you want to be sure it gets cooked thoroughly and isnt hard, but you don't want the stuffing to burn). 
6. Let it cool at least 5 minutes before serving, squash will be very hot! 

This would be a great recipe to serve to company too, it's so pretty. I know, where was my camera?