Stuffed Roasted Delicata Squash with Warm Maple Vinaigrette
Total Time: 00h 45m
Makes: 14 servings
Roasted delicata squash just feels like fall. Stuffed with a fruit and nut spiced coucous filling, and drizzled with a warm maple vinaigrette, so filling it will satisfy even your heartiest of appetites. This makes a great autumn or Thanksgiving side dish, or even a main meal w/a nice salad. If you are vegetarian, just leave out the pancetta and switch your chicken stock to a vegetable stock. And don’t forget, unlike some of the other winter squashes, you are free to eat the yummy roasted skin on this delicate squash. (Thank you to our friend Stacey Swanson for creating this wonderful recipe.)
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Ingredients
- Couscous filling
- 3/4 cup of small couscous aka Moroccan couscous
- 2 cups of chicken stock
- 1/2 cup of onion or shallot
- 1 red pear or apple
- 2-3 ounces of finely chopped pancetta or bacon
- 1-1 1/4 teaspoon of Frontier Co-op or Simply Organic Rosemary
- 1/4 cup of chopped pecans
- 1/4 cup of chopped dried cranberries
- 1.5-2 teaspoons of Simply Organic Roasted Garlic & Herb Umami blend
- Frontier Co-op salt to taste
- Squash
- Rebel Green Fruit & Veggie Clean
- 3 delicata squash roughly 6-7 inches long or so
- Chosen Foods avocado oil
- 3-4 tablespoons Simply Organic Sweet & Smoky Umami blend
- 1/2-3/4 teaspoon of Simply Organic Sweet & Smoky Umami blend
- Frontier Co-op salt to taste
- Vinaigrette
- 1/4 cup Sutter Butte Traditional Balsamic or Sutter Butte Fig Balsamic would work too
- 1/8 cup + 1 tablespoon of Frontier Maple Syrup powder
- 1 teaspoon of dijon mustard
- 2-3 ounces of finely chopped pancetta or bacon
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2-3/4 teaspoon of Simply Organic Sweet & Smoky Umami blend
- Frontier Co-op salt to taste
Directions
- Preheat over to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with Beyond Gourmet parchment paper
- Wash the outside of each squash with the Rebel Green Fruit & Veggie wash. This is one winter squash you can eat the roasted skin.
- Cut the ends off the squash and then using a long spoon (an iced tea or a bar spoon) scoop out the seeds and tunnel through until you can see through the squash end to end.
- Cut the squash into rounds roughly 1-1.5 inches thick. The sizes of your squash are not going to perfectly match and so you may or may not get a total of 14 pieces. You want nice thick pieces of squash to hold while baking and to hold your stuffing. If you want bigger pieces you can cut them 2 inches or even a bit more, you will just need to adjust your baking time until they are fork tender.
- Drizzle your squash with Chosen Foods avocado oil making sure all pieces are coated rubbing it with your hands. Sprinkle Simply Organic Sweet & Smoky Umami blend and salt to taste liberally over the squash pieces and trying to get some in the small cavities.
- Place on the baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes. You want the squash to roast about 3/4 of the way before stuffing it.
- While the squash is roasting, cook the couscous according to the package directions but sub chicken stock for water as it gives your couscous some depth of flavor.
- While couscous is resting chop your onion, pear, pancetta, pecans, cranberries.
- In another pan sweat your onion & pancetta for a few minutes with a small splash of oil.
- Place all the ingredients in the couscous: onion, pancetta, pear, pecans, cranberry, rosemary, umami blend, salt to taste and an extra splash of chicken stock if it seems too dry.
- Pull the squash out and spoon the filling into the empty squash cavities, pressing the filling down lightly with the spoon. Don’t overfill just yet. As squash has a tendency to be different sizes you want to make sure you have enough filling for all your cavities. You can always double back around and add more, heaping it on top. Sprinkle the top with more Umami blend if you like.
- Pop the filled squash back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so. you want to the squash fork tender.
- While the filled squash is roasting, start sweating the rest of the pancetta in pan until it is cooked through. Turn the fire off and add in 1/4 cup Sutter Buttes balsamic, 1/2 cup olive oil, the dijon, the Frontier maple syrup powder, more umami seasoning and salt to taste. Whisk until it is all incorporated and sugar has dissolved and dressing is warm from the residual heat from the pan.
- Top the fin.
