This is a beautiful dish that can really shine as a holiday meal, or any time you want to add a little something fancy to the dinner table. Stuffed squash is one of our favorite recipes for the fall and winter, but we’re pretty sure we outdid ourselves with these stuffed acorn squashes.
While we could have chosen to stuff them with couscous or quinoa, we decided to take a slightly sweeter approach and use fresh cranberries with a little brown sugar and honey. You can cater this dish to your preference, in terms of sweetness, but it really ends up being the perfect balance, since the cranberries cut a lot of sugar and the orange enhances all the flavors. You don’t have to spend hours slaving away over this, but you can tell everyone you did it’s that good!
Stuffed Acorn Squash
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 2 acorn squash
- 1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 4 tablespoons butter
- honey, optional
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375º F.
- Cut each squash in half (make halves as even as possible) and scrape out seeds.
- Place squash cut side up in 1-2 baking dish(es).
- In a large bowl, combine walnuts, cranberries, brown sugar, orange juice and a drizzle of honey, and toss together. Make sure everything is evenly coated.
- Divide mixture into 4 parts and stuff into hollow center of squash.
- Top each half with 1 tablespoon butter.
- Cover baking dish(es) loosely with aluminum foil and transfer to oven.
- Bake for 60-90 minutes, or until squash is fork tender.
- Remove from oven and serve immediately.
Recipe adapted from Let The Baking Begin