Squash Stuffed With Butter Beans and Garlicky Greens




I usually make this with acorn squash, but the delicata squash looked like this, too pretty to pass up. AND y'all, the skin is edible. Pick it up like a little squash taco! I don't really sports, but I think this might win your next tailgate. Could it, maybe, even look a little footballesque? Laced with just enough toasted pecans and parmesan to make it special, this is our go-to healthy celebration of squash season.

This recipe evolved from Greens with Spicy Lemon Cumin Oil out of Russ Parson's treatise on vegetables, How to Pick a Peach. If you are new to cooking and eating vegetables in season, this book is an excellent resource, and a great read. Its still on my shelf, eleven years later.


Yield: 2 servings/8 smart points per serving as a main OR 8 servings/2 smart points per serving

The photo shows one dinner portion or four side servings.



Ingredients:

1 10 oz package chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1-2 winter squash, size and hunger depending, halved and seeded
1 15 oz can butter beans, drained and rinsed
2.5-3 oz kale, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 oz pecan halves, toasted and chopped
1.5 oz parmesan, grated fine
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/2 C fresh basil, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
the juice of 1 lemon


Directions

Quick tip, during the first part of the squash baking, I do all my prep. During the second half, I cook the greens and beans mixture.

1. Heat oven to 400℉. Line and spray baking dish. Place squash cut-side down and bake for 25-35 minutes, depending on size. Flip over and bake for another 25-35 minutes until golden and just beginning to brown on the edges.

 ready to flip

ready to come out of the oven


2. In a large skillet, over high heat, heat 2/3 of the oil until shimmering and toss the kale in the hot oil until evenly coated. Sauté over high heat until kale begins to wilt and char.



3. Add spinach in small clumps, tossing with kale until the greens are combined. 

4. Clear a spot in the middle of the pan. Add garlic and drizzle remaining oil over garlic. Fry in the small puddle of oil until almost beginning to turn golden, about 10-20 seconds. Then toss with spinach and kale.



5. Add in beans, parmesan and pecans. Toss to combine, and sauté until cheese is melted, and beans are heated through, 1-2 minutes.



6. Off heat, stir in lemon juice and fresh basil.

7. Divide mixture evenly among squash portions and serve.



Side note, if you're new to healthy cooking, you might want to invest in a Microplane (brand name).  The fine particles make it easier to deliver cheesy goodness in every bite AND it makes your brain think you are about to eat A LOT of cheese. That's satisfying.

1.5 ounces parmesan solid and grated with a microplane:














Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Instant Pot Braised Beef with Mushrooms and Gravy

Image
Someday, soon, the sun will shine, and the air won't hurt your face. Until then, I've been making this giant pot of good, BROWN comfort food. I love a good pot roast (grass-fed chuck, potatoes, all simmered in gravy), but I don't love the saturated fat and calorie count. I swapped SLICED eye of round for chuck. Good beef flavor, a LOT less fat. It does NOT have the succulent, melty quality of a well prepared chuck roast, but it is still very good, and better for you. If anyone has any tips on tenderizing the meat further, I'm all ears. Don't get me wrong, the thin cut of meat and pressure cooking leaves the eye of round tender enough to eat with a spoon, its just different, akin, texture wise, to a lean slice of brisket. Side note, instead of potatoes, I've been serving this over oven roasted turnips, carrots and rutabagas. Also, you should eat this in your jammas, on your couch, while watching netflix. STAY WARM YOU GUYS. Yield: Serves 2 (probably
Read more

Chicken and Veggie Soup with Lemon

Image
Children change everything. Winter used to mean Christmas (YAY!!!!) and Parties (YAY!!!) and fake holidays where everyone eats appetizers (Super Bowl!!! The Oscars!!!). After children, winter is that, AND a seemingly endless cycle of sick. It's better now that they are older, but still. December-March means cough, booger-nose, tummy troubles, fever, repeat. Small children tend to cough right into your mouth, without even trying! Whomp-whomp, everyone is sick. But don't worry. I have soup. Lazy soup. Lazy soup with things you might have lurking in your fridge and pantry. Also, its very low in Smart Points, 1 point for a giant, comforting bowl. I kinda winged this recipe. HOWEVER, the base is straight out of Americas Test Kitchen's (ATK) Family cookbook. Their recipe (for chicken pot pie p. 323) involves sautéing onions in butter then splashing in dry sherry to deglaze, and that shit is delicious. Per ATK's recommendation, you've got to use this sherry though:
Read more

Cowgirl Twice Baked Potatoes

Image
Twenty years a vegetarian, until I moved to Texas... And I've been making up for lost time. Micklethwait, Franklin's, Terry Blacks, Saltlick, Lambert's, Stiles Switch, Kemuri Tatsu-Ya, la Barbecue, Valentina's Tex-Mex and good old Rudy's, among others, all just a few miles from my house. Whenever we indulge, we like to order a little extra either to use immediately in the following week's lunches, or for a make ahead freezer meal, like the following. Cowgirl twice baked potatoes, the perfect way to enjoy a little barbecue, without over indulging. Inspired by this tasty looking shepherds pie twice baked potatoes from The Candid Appetite , and enhanced with my new found love of brisket, and combined with an irrational fear of ground beef. Hamburger in a restaurant? Yes. Buy fancy ground beef from Central Market to cook my own hamburger? URP, no. A by-product of the 1990's e. coli scares, surely. Also one of the reasons I quit eating meat. Extra silly
Read more