Our farm share included some neat vegetables I hadn't seen before like eight-ball squash. They are a type of round zucchini. Fun to cook with and delicious.
As I've mentioned in a previous post zucchini are great and have a lot of health benefits. They are also a versatile vegetable and can be served a number of different ways. The eight-balls seem ideal for stuffing because who would want to cut them up and cook them, destroying that cute shape? Having some leftover quinoa from when I last made quinoa taboule (I always double quinoa when I cook it because we eat so much of it) I decided to create a quinoa stuffing to fill these little beauties. This turned out to be so delicious that we can't wait to get more of these squash to make it again.
If you don't have eightball squash you can substitute acorn squash. The recipe will still be delicious.
Quinoa Stuffed Eight-ball Squash
Ingredients
- 4 eight-ball squash, washed
- 2 C. cooked quinoa
- 1/2 C. roasted tomatoes in oil, diced
- 2 scallions, diced
- 1 clove garlic diced
- 2 T. chopped basil
- 1 t. salt
- 2 T. olive oil
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400 F
- Cut tops off of squash and set aside
- Scoop out inside of squash being sure to leave a layer of flesh to maintain the shape
- Place hollowed out squash into oven proof dish
- Roughly chop squash
- Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan
- Add squash to pan and saute until starting to soften
- Add tomatoes, scallions, garlic, and basil and saute 2 minutes
- Add quinoa and toss to mix well
- Add salt and toss again
- Turn off heat, fill squash with mixture
- Place tops back on squash and place in oven
- Bake 20 minutes
