Carnival Squash with Chanterelles, Greens and Wild Rice

Stuffed squash is a cool-weather favorite at our house. It's easy to prepare, looks beautiful and contains a wide variety of nutrients. One of the easiest ways to make sure you get a range of vitamins and minerals is to aim for variety - different colors, different vegetables, and different grains. By making sure that every ingredient counts for something, you can take a meal from being filling to being nutritious. Think of a stuffed baked potato - sure, it's filling, and it's delicious, but mashed white potato with sour cream, chives, bacon bits, butter....not so nutritious. In contrast, this dish has squash (high in carotenoids, Vitamin A, C, and fiber), wild rice (high in protein, lysein, and fiber), spinach (Vitamins A, K, C, maganese, iron, and folate) and mushrooms (tons of minerals, B vitamins, including the elusive B12). As you can see, by altering the ingredients to those of high nutritional value, it's easy to transform the idea of a "stuffed something" into a meal that is not only filling, but good fuel for your body.



If you can't find carnival squash, try acorn squash or any grapefruit sized round squash. Any type of dark green may be used such as kale, spinach, beet greens, chard or a combination of a few! I always recommend using wild rice as it is actually an aquatic grass instead of a grain and offers significant health benefits (textural and flavor too) over brown or white rice. If you can find fresh chanterelle mushrooms, they are outstanding in this dish, but any fresh wild mushrooms or even criminis will do.

Enjoy!

Serves 4 (each person gets one squash half)
INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Carnival squash, halved, seeds scooped out
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 generous handfuls chanterelles (or mixed wild mushrooms), chopped in large pieces
• 6 cups greens (spinach, chard, kale)
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• generous pinch of dried thyme
• Cracked salt + pepper
• Olive oil
• (a little under) 2 cups broth
• 1 cup wild rice
• handful of breadcrumbs or panko
• 2 oz Feta cheese or daiya mozzarella *optional

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375'
2. Line baking sheet with foil and coat with cooking spray. Rub cut sides of squash with a little olive oil and place cut side down on foil.
3. Roast in oven for 40 minutes or until mostly tender when pierced with fork.
4. While squash is roasting, cook rice by placing 2 cups broth and 1 cup rice in pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook covered for 45 minutes or until grains have split open and are tender.
5. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in large pan over medium high heat. Saute onion and garlic for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and saute another 3-5 minutes.
6. Add sherry and turn heat up so that it's at a rapid simmer, stir occassionally until the alcohol is cooked off and most of the liquid is gone about 8 minutes.
7. Reduce heat to medium-low, add greens and saute until just wilted.
8. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. 
9. Remove from heat and stir in rice.
10. Divide filling among squash halves, packing it in as necessary. Top with breadcrumbs or panko and a pinch of cheese (or daiya) if desired.
11. Turn heat up to 425' and place filled squash back in oven for 5-8 minutes until breadcrumbs are lightly browned.
12. Serve!