Apple Butter Laced Stuffed Winter Squash

Apple Butter Laced Stuffed Winter Squash

Ingredients

• 4-5 small winter squash, I used small acorn and sweet dumpling

for stuffing

• 1 medium sized eggplant, roasted and chopped into pieces
• 4 large portobello caps, chopped into small pieces
• 8 oz tempeh
• 1- 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/4 cup onion, finely minced
• 1/3 cup apple butter

for inside the squash:

• tbsp or 2 or margarine or olive oil
• cinnamon
• turbinado sugar

Instructions

1. First, your eggplant should be roasted until very soft, as its used as the binder in this stuffing. Here’s a quick explanation of how to do just that. I also salted my eggplant before roasting, so keep this in mind when adjusting the stuffing’s salt content.
2. Preheat your oven to 400 °F.
3. Next, prepare your squash by cutting off just the tops and de-seeding. Rub inside lightly with olive oil or margarine, then sprinkle some turbinado sugar and cinnamon on the inside of the squash.
4. In large bowl, mix together all stuffing ingredients, including the roasted eggplant. It will get kinda squishy with the eggplant mixed in, and that’s okay!
5. Fill up the bowls of the prepared squash with filling until very full.
6. Replace squash caps and roast for 40-60 minutes, or until squash is soft and fully cooked. For the last twenty minutes or so, I removed the tops (they were well cooked), and then replaced them before serving.
7. The cooking time will depend on the size of your squash, and the variety. I think my small acorn squash (about 4″ across) seemed to cook better than the sweet dumpling squash… but my husband disagreed and thought the exact opposite.  SO, just keep your eyes on them as they roast and use your intuition when deciding they are cooked perfectly.

Source: allysonkramer