This Roasted Vegan Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe is made with stuffing roasted acorn squash with a quinoa filling flavored with apples, cranberries, and pecans. Aka all the autumn flavors we all love. From start to finish, it takes less than an hour to make and it can be prepared a day in advance. You can serve it both warm, room temperature, or right out of the fridge, which IMHO makes it an ideal dish for your upcoming Thanksgiving menu. Intrigued? Read on…
How To Make Roasted Vegan Stuffed Acorn Squash
The recipe has 3 folds. First, you start with roasting acorn squash. While it is roasting, you make the quinoa and apple filling. Last but not least, you fill the roasted acorn with the stuffing.
How To Make Acorn Squash
I find that the best way to cook any squash is to roast it. I think roasting brings out their earthy flavors more than any other method of cooking. Acorn squash is no different. To roast acorn squash, you first cut it in half or into quarters. You can do it the way I did and cut it in lengthwise, but cutting it crosswise would also work. Next, you scoop out all the seeds and drizzle the inside (the flesh) with olive oil. I recommend using your clean fingers to distribute all the oil to make sure that it coats all the flesh. Then you sprinkle each half with a generous amount of salt and pepper. The amount of seasoning used depends on the size of your acorn squash, but for the ones you see in the photos I used a little less than ¼ teaspoon kosher salt and ⅛ teaspoon black pepper. Then you place the squash halves cut side down on a sheet pan lined parchment paper and roast them in a preheated 400 F degree (204 C.) oven for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the flesh comes in and out easily. For this recipe, I used 5 small-ish acorn squash, which yielded 10 halves, but you can also use 3 large ones and cut them into quarters.
How Long Does Acorn Squash Last
Uncooked acorn squash will last up to a month in a cool and darkroom. If you plan to cut it and consume it in smaller amounts, then it is best to cover the raw squash with stretch film (or place it in an airtight container) and store it in the fridge. If you want to make this quinoa stuffed acorn squash recipe a day in advance, you can roast the squash, bring it to room temperature, place in an airtight container, and store in the fridge until you are ready to stuff it with the filling.
How To Make the Quinoa Stuffing for Stuffed Acorn Squash Recipe
To stuff the acorn squash, I made a sweet and savory stuffing by cooking onions, celery, and garlic with apples, cooked quinoa, cranberries and pecans. The earthy flavors mixed in with sweet fruit is truly a great filling for the sweet roasted acorn squash. The stuffing recipe below yields 3-4 cups of filling, but if for some reason you have some leftovers, you can enjoy it as a side dish or a quick lunch on the next day. It can also be served just by itself as a side dish. Similar to the squash, you can make this quinoa stuffing a day in advance as well. Just be sure to store it in an airtight container in the fridge.
How To Serve Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash
Like I mentioned earlier, you can serve this dish warm, room temperature or cold. If you are not a fan of serving it cold, you can heat it in a 300-degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until it is warmed thoroughly.
What To Serve With Acorn Squash
While this vegan stuffed squash recipe can be served by itself, it would also be a great side dish to serve along with turkey, chicken or pork dishes, especially while acorn squash is in season. If you decide to serve it with animal protein, I would recommend incorporating some of the juices of the meat dish into the stuffing. Perhaps, by drizzling some of the juices over the stuffed acorn squash right before serving.
If You Liked This Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash, You Might Also Like
Roasted Delicata SquashVegan Butternut Squash SoupRoasted Acorn Squash SaladRoasted Butternut Squash Salad with Bulgur and Tahini DressingArugula Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash ~ That Skinny Chick Can BakeSlow Cooker Butternut Squash Lentil StewButternut Squash Noodles Recipe
Other Thanksgiving Side Dishes You Might Like
Sweet Potato Souffle RecipeBrussel Sprout and Kale SaladMashed Sweet Potato RecipeQuinoa Brussel Sprouts Sweet PotatoRoasted CarrotsApple Salad RecipeSavory Wild Rice Salad
