Vegan Stuffed Acorn Squash

I went to a small dinner yesterday. I knew that the main dish was going to be food that I couldn't eat because it was loaded with dairy. I knew I had to bring something that I could happily eat as my main dish but that other people could eat as a side dish. I didn't prepare the night before, so I couldn't make anything that required soaking beans. I was in clinic until 1PM, so it had do be something that I could prepare pretty quickly (no slow cooking for this dish).

I decided on stuffed acorn squash. It's available locally and is in season right now. My original plan was to make a filling with lentils and rice plus other things that would make it delicious. I went to the store to pick up the ingredients I didn't have. When I got home, I discovered that I didn't have as many lentils as I needed. Being short on time, I couldn't go back to the store, so I made up the difference with mung beans. Like lentils, mung beans don't require a pre-soak. Having never cooked with mung beans, I had no idea how it would turn out, so I crossed my fingers and went about my business.

My second hiccup was the rice. I threw the rice and water in the rice cooker and didn't think about it until the rice was done. When I opened the cooker, I realized that I made a huge mistake. I used the amount of water needed for white rice, but I was using brown rice. The rice was dry and stiff - not exactly what I was going for. I just composted the rice and made the dish without rice. It meant that I didn't have a complete protein, but I decided one meal without a complete protein wouldn't kill me.

Ultimately, despite my problems in the cooking process, I was very happy with the results. One of my friends said, "This is really healthy isn't it?" during dinner. Yes, it was really healthy. And delicious.

My apologies for the lack of hard figures for the recipe - I just threw things in and called it good.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Lentils

Ingredients:

*2 acorn squash (there is enough filling for 3, and if you add rice, I'm sure you could make 4) cut in half. There were giant acorn squash and smaller acorn squash at Whole Foods - I went with the smaller ones.
*Olive oil
*Salt and pepper

*1 cup lentils (or a combination of lentils and mung beans. I used about 2/3 c lentils and 1/3 c mung beans)
*1 smallish yellow onion (or half a large yellow onion) chopped into very little pieces - not much larger than a lentil
*5 medium carrots peeled and chopped into pieces about the same size as the onion
*2 cloves minced garlic (you can adjust this to your taste)
*1-2 leaves of kale de-ribbed and chopped into small pieces (mine were probably 1.5cm square)
*1 handful (maybe 3/4 cup?) blanched slivered almonds
*2 handful dried sweetened cranberries
*Juice from 1/4 of a medium sized lemon
*fresh rosemary to taste
*salt and pepper to taste

Optional: cooked rice - this would probably be extra amazing with wild rice
I didn't do this, but in the future, I'd probably add about 1-2 tsp olive oil to the lentil mixture

Preheat oven to 375
Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits in the middle. You can save the seeds if you like for roasting
Put face up in a baking dish with ~1 inch water. Coat the top of the squash with olive oil (you could use butter if you prefer), and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake until the flesh is tender when you poke it with a fork. The time will vary depending on how big your squash is. I cooked mine for an hour and 5 minutes. The flesh may be a little brown on the edges.

While the squash is cooking, you can prepare everything else. (I did all of the chopping while the squash was cooking)
Pick through and rinse your lentils and beans. Put in a pot of boiling water and cook until tender. I overcooked mine (they were cooking for 30 minutes) - they were still delicious, but they were a little mushy. Periodically skim off the brown foam that will bubble to the top. Drain and put in a big bowl to mix with the other ingredients

Saute the onions in a large pan with olive oil for a couple of minutes. Add the carrots and garlic and saute until the onions are clear and the carrots are tender.
Add the almonds, saute for ~30 seconds.
Add the kale, cover and let everything steam until the kale is bright green and tender ~1.5 min
Add to the lentils
Add cranberries lemon juice, rosemary, salt and pepper and mix.
(If you have cooked rice, you would add it now. This is also where you would add any additional olive oil)

Scoop a heaping amount of the filling into the cavity of your squash, eat, and enjoy

Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs are my absolute favorite way to prepare eggs. When done right, they are fluffy, creamy and melt on your tongue. Unfortunately, despite the fact that they are amazingly simple to prepare, they are rarely done correctly. It's common to get rubbery, over-cooked scrambled eggs that make you wonder why anyone would want to eat their eggs like that.

Scrambled eggs can be eaten plain, or you can get crazy with additions. It all depends on your taste. The trick to making them perfect is to cook them on low. Not medium-low, not almost-low. Low. The lowest setting your stove has is probably just right. I like to cook my additions before I add the eggs. Tonight, I sauteed up some garlic and onions (I could have easily added peppers, broccoli, ham, bacon, corn, or whatever else sounded good). When they were done cooking, I lowered the temperature, waited a minute for the coils to cool down, and then I added my egg mixture. With a spatula, I kept scraping the pan and mixing the eggs. You don't want to let your eggs brown. Because it's cooked at a low temperature, it may take a little time to cook. The more eggs you use, the longer it will take. They're done when there's no more liquid, but the eggs still look just a tiny bit wet.

You can get a little crazy with your egg mixture if you like. You should beat the eggs with a fork until blended. Then you add herbs, spices, and cheese. Tonight, I went with salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast (it provides the eggs with a cheesy flavor without adding any dairy). I'm also a big fan of adding herbs. You can use rosemary, dill, thyme, basil, or go crazy and throw in some curry powder. Whatever flavors you love can be added to your eggs. Some people add milk to their scrambled eggs. I don't. The eggs are perfect as they are.

I'm of the opinion that fresh eggs are the tastiest, and I only buy eggs that come from free range chickens. I get mine from Skagit River Ranch. I've been to the farm and seen that the chickens are allowed to go wherever they want and are well cared for. Conveniently, they have a booth at my farmers market, so I don't have to drive all the way out to Sedro Woolley. Although they are more expensive than the eggs you would find in your grocery store, they taste way better and make a wonderful treat.