Twice Baked Acorn Squash & Winging It

I don’t know, you guys. I don’t know what happened.

I bought some sausage, had some other ingredients laying around, and knew I wanted Acorn Squash. And here we are – Twice Baked Acorn Squash.

Feel the freedom to play with this recipe.

The main components should be a protein of some kind I use some variant of an apple and/or maple sausage), a grain of your choosing, and acorn squash. (*If you wanna go vegan, there are some delicious Apple and Maple Vegan Sausages made by Field Roast.)

Start by cutting your acorn squash in half and roasting it. I usually coat the inside with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, freshly cracked pepper, and a pinch of garam masala.

Roast the acorn squash with the cut side up at 375 in the bottom third of your oven for 45 minutes to an hour. You should be able to pierce the flesh of the squash with a knife. (It should slide in like butter.)

Pull them out, let them cool a bit, and scoop out the half to 2/3rds of the squash flesh.

While it’s cooling, cook up some protein, remove from the pan to drain, and cook one chopped yellow onion, 1/2 tart apple, chopped. Add the sausage back in, and then add 1/2 C of some cooked grain like wild rice, barley – whatever you’ve got on hand. Maybe some walnuts.

Mix the squash with the sausage mixture. (It’s cool to have chunks of squash, it doesn’t have to be smooth.) Add about 1/2 C of cheese – I’d do a white cheddar, personally. And season with salt, pepper, a sprinkle of sage, or your favorite herbs on hand.

Stuff the squash shells and back in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes until bubbly and delicious looking.