Butternut Squash is the Bomb

I love butternut squash. It tastes great, it’s incredibly nutritious, it’s fairly easy to cook with and it stores for months. I grew a bunch last summer and just finished using all of it. Here are my four favorite recipes for butternut squash.


Squash and Greens
1 butternut squash
2 bunches of greens, about 2 dozen stems, I prefer Kale or Chard
½ onion
Toasted walnuts – 10-15 minutes at 300 usually toasts them nicely
Feta, blue or other tangy, crumbly cheese
2-3 Tablespoons Olive oil
Cube the squash and put it in the oven at 400 degrees, until tender (20-30 minutes.) Chop the onion and saute it in a large pan over medium low heat. While both are cooking prepare the greens by washing and removing the stems then coarsely chopping into several pieces per leaf. Turn up the heat on the onions and add the greens and a cup of water to the big pan. Steam/saute the greens until nice a tender, add more water if necessary. When the greens and the squash is done prepare the plate by first arranging a pile of the greens. Put a big scoop of squash on top and then sprinkle a generous amount of walnuts and cheese over that.


Squash and Quinoa
3 cups quinoa, cooked.
3 cups butternut squash, cubed (1 large squash)
1 onion, chopped.
1 Tablespoon thyme
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 cup toasted walnuts
Toss the squash cubes with the onion, thyme, olive oil, and vinegar. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet and back for 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees until the squash is done. Cook the quinoa as the package instructs while the squash is in the oven. Mix the cooked squash and the cooked quinoa together and enjoy.


Harvest Chili
1 onion
2 cups broth, chicken or vegetable.
1 large butternut squash cubed
1 cup corn, canned, frozen or fresh
1 cup or 1 can cooked white beans, actually any bean will do,
Tomatoes – I use tomato sauce, about 2 cups, but the recipe this started with used chopped fresh tomatoes
Peppers – this time of year I use dried hot red peppers saved from my garden
2 Tablespoons chili powder
Saute the onion in a tablespoon of olive oil, add broth and turn up the heat til it starts to boil then turn it down to a brisk simmer and add all the other stuff. Add broth and tomato sauce if there isn’t enough liquid. Let it cook for 30 minutes or until the squash is cooked through. Salt to taste.


Stuffed Squash
1 clove garlic
1 large squash
1 T olive oil
½ cup walnuts
¼ cup blue cheese
2 tsp thyme
1 T honey
Cut the squash in half the long way, take out the seeds and stringy stuff and bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees. Mix the other ingredients together, enlarge the hole in the squash by scrapping bits of the flesh into the hole, pile the other ingredients in the hole and bake it until the cheese melts a bit, 5 to 10 minutes.


Where to get it local
Squash: all over the place, Midway Farms, Roths, EZ Orchards
Walnuts: EZ Orchards
Onions, Kale and Chard: Midway Farms, also likely at the Salem Public Market and certainly at the Corvallis Indoor Market.
Cheese: EZ Orchards, Roth’s, Lifesource, Fitts Seafood and check out www.oregoncheeseguild.org
Olive Oil: Victoria Estates of Keizer is available at EZ Orchards
Corn: check out the processors section for brands of corn canned and frozen in Oregon, get them in most grocery stores here.
Tomato Sauce: check for the Oregon brands but not a lot of tomatoes are processed here since our cool summers make commercial production of tomatoes somewhat challenging. A few of the farm stands have home canned sauce and Buona Terra near Monmouth is one of them.
White Beans: I’m not sure who has these locally grown here. If you know somewhere, let me know.