If you can’t tell from reading my weekly Toast of Tuesday posts, I absolutely love squash. There is not a variety of the dear gourd that I don’t love. On the heel’s of last week’s spaghetti squash post, this week we’ll be making roasted acorn squash stuffed with a cauliflower-apple-walnut-garbanzo hash. Topped with goat cheese. Uh, YUM.

 Now, unlike our dear friend the spaghetti squash, the acorn squash is unfortunately much harder for mere mortals like myself to slice into raw. A little trick I learned is to pierce the skin in about five to ten spots around the squash, and pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

After it cools a minute, it should be easy enough to slice down the middle into two halves. We’ll baste the halves with a smidge of EVOO before popping it in the oven.

Meanwhile, we’ll chop up some raw cauliflower, discarding as much of the stalks as possible. Setting our cauliflower aside, we’ll also chop up a Granny Smith apple and sprinkle it heartily with fresh squeezed lemon juice. This both keeps our apple from turning brown out in the air while we wait to cook it, and it also will keep the apple from burning when we saute it in a minute.

Now we’ll heat up a tablespoon of EVOO over medium heat and saute our cauliflower for about ten minutes, stirring it frequently. Next we’ll toss in the chopped walnuts, apples, and drained garbanzos, continuing to stir.

After continuing to saute for another ten minutes or so, our squash should be about ready to remove from the oven and de-seed.

Next we’ll stuff the squash with a hearty scoop of the sauteed hash and pop it back in the oven for another five minutes or so.

After that, we’ll plate it with some roasted veggies on the side and top it with a dollop of goat cheese.

Bon apetit!

Ingredients:

• 1 acorn squash, halved
• 1 head raw cauliflower, chopped
• 1 Granny Smith apple, chopped
• 1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 ounce goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon EVOO, plus more for brushing squash
• salt + pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 425F. Lightly brush squash halves with the extra EVOO and sprinkle with salt and pepper, as desired for taste. Place on an unlined cookie sheet in the oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Heat tablespoon of EVOO in a pan over medium heat. Keep the chopped cauliflower and chopped apple in separate bowls. Squeeze the lemon juice into the bowl with apples, ensuring that all sides of the apple chunks are coated in lemon juice.

Once the pan sizzles when spritzed with a drop of water, add the cauliflower to the pan and saute for ten to 12 minutes, turning frequently. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Once cauliflower has softened, add apples, garbanzos, and walnuts to pan. Saute for an additional 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat once walnuts and apples are semi-soft but not mushy.

Remove squash from oven and carefully scoop out seeds. Stuff each squash half with as much of the cauliflower hash as desired, and place back in oven for five minutes, turning off the oven as you do so. This way it is not quite as hot.

Serve the stuffed squash with desired side dish (this pairs well with roasted root vegetables in the winter, or with an arugula salad in the summer). Top squash with one ounce of goat cheese and serve.