Stuffed Squash @MaddieDayAuthor

MADDIE DAY here, with a recipe that will warm your innards and your kitchen at the same time.

We love stockpiling a few types of winter squash at the end of the fall. They keep well and can be used for the next couple of months. This acorn squash made a perfect meal for two.

Stuffed Squash

 

Ingredients

1 acorn squash, halved with seeds scooped out

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 onion, minced

1 green pepper, seeded and diced

2 pre-cooked chicken or other sausages, sliced

1 or 2 cloves garlic

1 cup cooked brown rice

¼ cup grated cheese of your choice

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Place squash halves on rimmed baking sheet cut side down. Add water to barely cover bottom of pan. Bake for half an hour or until a knife slides easily through the skin.

While it’s baking, add 1 tablespoon oil to a skillet on medium-high. Saute onion and pepper until tender. Add sausage slices and saute until warmed. Add garlic and saute for no more than a minute. 

Remove from heat and stir in rice.

Oil a square glass baking dish with 1 tablespoon oil. Set squash halves cut side up in dish.

Fill with mixture, pressing down and heaping up. You’ll probably have extra of the rice mixture, which you can serve on the side or later. 

Top with grated cheese.

Bake for ten or fifteen minutes or until warmed through and cheese begins to brown.

Serve hot. Acorn squash skin is thin and edible.

Note: vegetarians can omit the sausage and increase the cheese, and/or add chick peas or toasted nuts into the rice mix.

Readers: What kind of baked comfort dinner do you like in the colder months?

🧀🍛🍆

Deadly Crush is out and available wherever books are sold.

My most recent releases are Murder at the Rusty Anchor,

 A Case for the Ladies,

And Deep Fried Death, #12 in the Country Store Mysteries.

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Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.