*This recipe first appeared on our sister blog, I AM A HEALER
Time to serve up a tasty vegan/ vegetarian entrée to increase your joy and warm your bellies, Curried Lentil Stuffed Acorn Squash!
There are so many fun things you can do with acorn squash! I’ve used them a lot lately to make rice bowls, and they’re such a versatile ingredient you can do a ton with different spices and homemade sauces!
Furthermore, Acorn squash is even good as a meal prep option to eat cold. Roast it and pair it in the fridge with some zucchini noodles and a tangy sauce–you’ll have a cold, transportable, low-maintenance lunch for days!
This Curried Lentil Stuffed Acorn Squash is a vegetarian recipe because it calls for parmesan, but I’m going to give you a recipe for a quick four ingredient vegan parmesan that takes two minutes to make on the fly! No excuse to not try this delicious, cruelty-free option.
Curried Lentil Stuffed Acorn Squash
Print RecipeIngredients
- INGREDIENTS
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- 3-4 small acorn squash halved and seeded. You can trim/square the bottoms so that they lie flat as well
- 1/2 pound mushrooms, diced
- 1 medium white onion, diced
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil (1 and 2)
- Salt and pepper
- 3/4 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 3/4 cup long-grain brown rice
- 3/4 cup lentils
- 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup grated Parmesan—You can also use Paneer, an Asian/ Indian cheese, that would be bulkier and cubed OR this Vegan Parmesan
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
On a rimmed baking sheet, lay 1 tablespoon of your liquid oil down. Spread the cut sides of each squash around in the oil. This acts as double duty for greasing the sheet as well as oiling your squash. Sprinkle the cut sides of squash with your salt and pepper. Then turn the cut sides of the squash down (if you've squared the bottoms, those will be facing up). Cover the baking sheet tightly with foil and roast for 30-35 minutes.
While the squash bakes, you'll start your stuffing. Add 2 tablespoons of your remaining oil to a pot or large skillet. Heat the oil over medium heat.
Add the mushrooms, onion, carrots, and spices (coriander, ginger, curry, turmeric, and some salt and pepper). Saute until your mushroom and onions are soft.
Add your lentils, rice, and veggie broth and bring that to a boil; once it's boiling you and cover and reduce the heat to let it simmer for 20-/+ minutes until the lentils and rice have absorbed all the liquid. Transfer mix to a bowl.
Remove your squash from the oven. Scoop out 2 to 3 tablespoons of squash flesh from the "lining" of each squash. Stir the squash into your stuffing mix.
Stuff your squash ith the mix, if you're adding real cheese like the parmesan (or paneer!), top the squash with cheese and broil for a couple of minutes to melt the cheese. If you're using the vegan parmesan, it's not necessary to broil the squash once stuffed.
Serve with a side salad, hummus and carrots, or even some snap peas! Xo.
1 Comment
Taylor Eubanks
April 11, 2017 at 7:18 pmI finally made this tasty recipe! I’d been meaning to since you posted. What a hit!
I changed a couple things:
Used wild rice because my husband isn’t a fan of brown.
Didn’t have carrots (oops!) so I threw in a couple large handfuls of fresh spinach, chopped.
Definitely adding to our rotation. Thanks for posting!