Stuffed Acorn Squash: A Successful Experiment!

To those of you visiting from Kelly's Korner, welcome! I made this for dinner tonight and it turned out really well. My main impetus for making it was the two acorn squash which had been sitting in our fridge from our CSA.

 

This is the recipe I based my meal on. I didn't follow it exactly however. My comments are in the italics.

 

Ingredients

• 2 small acorn squash, halved and seeded
• 1/2 cup water (I just put about a 1/2" of water in the bottom of my baking dishes.
• 1/2 pound ground beef (I used a whole package of veggie ground round which says it's the equivalent of 1 1/3 lbs hamburger)
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion (I used a whole red onion since it's all we had on hand.)
• 2 tablespoons chopped celery (I used however much we had in the fridge -- about four stalks)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I didn't use salt; I rarely do in cooking.)
• 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage (I just used ground sage and didn't measure -- maybe a teaspoon. You really couldn't taste it.)
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup cooked rice (I used about a cup of cooked rice.)
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used enough to liberally cover the tops of all the squash, so likely about 1c or more.)
• I also added about 1c of frozen mixed veggies because it seemed like a good idea!

Directions

• Invert squash in an 11-in. x 7-in. baking dish. Add water and cover with foil. Bake at 375° for 50-60 minutes or until tender. 
  
  
• Meanwhile, cook beef (if using veggie ground round add a bit of oil and cook the onion and celery first, then throw the ground round in before adding the flour and stuff), onion and celery over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the flour, salt and sage until blended. Add milk. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Stir in rice (and frozen mixed veggies).

Transfer squash to a baking sheet. Fill cavity with meat mixture. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Remove from oven; sprinkle with cheese and bake 3-5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

 

This was really good. Rachel had two helpings and Dave commented that "It felt very autumnal."