Spiced Rice Filled Squash

This post features one of Mo’s lovely winter recipes, and here she is, doing what she enjoys most – making bread - once she decides which are her favourite doughs we’ll be posting those too.

We’re sticking with orange vegetables and middle eastern flavours, but moving on to squash, which can often be tricky not only to attack, but also taste-wise (personally I’m not a big fan of pumpkins apart from their seeds, so if you have any astounding ideas for making them taste interesting you must let me know).

This recipe only requires that you cut a squash in half, usually pretty achievable without accidents, using a big, sharp knife. Then it’s filled with a delicious, moist rice mixture.  Don’t be tempted to substitute couscous – it’s far too dry, and anyway vegetarians get fed far too much wheat!

Spiced Rice Filled Squash

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Ingredients

2-3 medium squash (eg. Acorn or Onion)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tangerine, juice only

1 tsp allspice

Filling

50g white basmati rice

50g red rice

50g wild rice

1 ½ tsp vegetable stock powder

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground cardamom

50g dried cranberries

25g dried apricots

50g pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp cold pressed pumpkin seed oil

Serves 4-6

First of all, preheat your oven to Gas 5/190C.

Cut your squash in half and scoop out all the seeds. Combine the oil, juice and allspice together and brush or rub over the flesh. If you have the ‘bulb’ end of a butternut squash left over, these are also great for stuffing. Place on a baking tray, cover with foil and bake for around 30 minutes until the flesh is soft. Take out of oven and set aside.

Cook the rices separately according to instructions, each with ½ tsp stock powder. Drain and combine. Wild rice will take the longest time, and is in fact a seed. It’s also a bit pricey but we love the chewy texture. Red rice has all the benefits of brown rice (easy to cook, not stripped of nutrients) but the bonus of a rather more exciting colour.

Heat the oil and sauté (I hope you’re using that word now) the onion and celery until soft. Then add the spices, dried fruit and seeds. Scoop out a little of the cooked flesh and add to the mixture.

Combine this with the rice and fill each squash half. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes until completely heated through.

ps. the filling makes a lovely pilaf on its own with roasted cubes of squash and/or courgettes together with chopped herbs (although if making this for Mo, make sure you leave out the coriander!)