I call this Heartland Soul Food – this makes a healthy meal all in one package. The savory stuffing goes well with the sweet squash. When it’s just the two of us, we’ll split one squash and use half of the stuffing, and make another meal out of it the following week.
1 cup of cooked rice (1/3 cup dry rice and 2/3 cup water)
Chicken bouillon cube
1 pound pork sausage
1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
½ onion coarse chop
1 stalk celery chopped
1 10 oz. package frozen spinach, thawed, drained and chopped
Dried basil
Salt & Pepper
Instructions
Start the 2/3 cup of water on the stove and add the bouillon cube. Add the rice and simmer until done.
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut the acorn squash in half, cutting through both stems. Clean out the seeds and pulp, and then score the inside of the squash with a knife. Put a slice of butter in each half. Season with salt & pepper. Place on a sheet pan with a cup of water in the bottom. Place in the oven to begin cooking.
Brown the pork sausage; remove and set aside.
Brown the onion and celery in the same pan and brown, add the sliced mushrooms to cook down, and then deglaze the pan with some cooking wine if needed.
Combine the rice, sausage, onion, celery, mushrooms, and spinach in a bowl and season with salt, pepper, and some basil.
Remove the squash from the oven and fill each of the squash halves with the stuffing mix. Put another cup of water in the pan. Put back into the oven and finish baking, for a total of 1 hour.
You will likely have more stuffing than what can fit in the squash. You can reheat this and serve it on the side with the stuffed squash.
