Vegan stuffed butternut squash with a savory bulgur mushroom stuffing is divine simplicity that delivers superior flavor and uncomplicated elegance with ease.
Looking for a new squash recipe? Or perhaps you want to serve up something elegant that won’t take a day of cooking. Look no further – I’ve got you covered.
You will be surprised at how easy this recipe comes together. First, you’ll bake the squash. While that's happening, we're gonna call on my favorite quick-cooking grain – bulgur to make a stuffing that will beg you to eat it by the spoonful.
Uncomplicated elegance
That’s what this recipe is all about. The only difficulty you might discover is cutting the darned squash. Make sure you do 2 things to uncomplicate this: a sharp knife and caution.
Start by setting your goal. Butternut squash cut lengthwise. Here’s how I accomplish this:
1. Hold the squash steady on your chopping board and use a sharp knife to trim off the top and bottom. You don’t want to cut through the vegetable itself because you want to create a squash ‘boat’ designed to hold the maximum of bulgur stuffing.
2. Split the squash in half where the long neck meets the round base. Be careful of your fingers. If you can stand the squash upright, that sometimes works the easiest. If not, lay it on its side. A folded towel placed underneath can also help keep the squash from slipping.
3. Grab a spoon and scoop out the seeds and clean it up a bit.
Now, let’s get to squash baking.
Preheat the oven to 4000 F (2000 C) and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Sprinkle a bit of rosemary, thyme, oregano, and a pinch of salt into the squash flesh. Now, you can bake this one of 2 ways, cut-side up or cut-side down. I tend to do the latter because the squash cooks a bit quicker. The downside of this is that it’s more cumbersome to check for tenderness. When baked cut-side down, it will take about 20 minutes (10 minutes more if not). That’s just enough time to make the bulgur stuffing.
Here’s the quick scoop on making the stuffing. Make it on the stove while the squash bakes. After the squash cools a bit, cut away the remaining flesh and cube it. This leaves a shell of squash that is begging for stuffing. Once the bulgur is cooked (about 15 minutes), mix in the squash cubes, dried cranberries, and chopped walnuts. Don’t worry about heating the stuffing up on the stove. You'll be popping your creation back into the hot oven for about 10 minutes to finish it off.
What is bulgur?
If you don’t have a bag of bulgur, stock up! It’s nothing more than whole, cracked wheat that comes par-boiled, so it's quick-cooking. Bulgur is not just whole food. It's healthy too. Load up on fiber, protein, and those lovely complex carbs with the nutty flavor of this additive grain. Do it for fewer calories than quinoa. Winner!
Bulgur is my absolute favorite ground meat substitute. It’s cheaper and healthier than any soy crumbles or anything in those packages of minced vegan 'meat.' A cup of bulgur is my secret ingredient for 5-alarm chili. Mix it with lentils for a Lebanese-inspired mujadara or your favorite vegetables for a stew with substance. I haven’t even begun to explore the mysteries of bulgur tacos. Watch this space.
How to cook bulgur
Bulgur is cooked with a ratio of 1 part bulgur to 2 parts of liquid. You don’t need to do any soaking (even rinsing is optional). It takes about 15 minutes for the liquid to absorb and the bulgur to get tender. It’s that simple.
Unlike rice, bulgur is very forgiving. Despite my unwitting attempts, I've never overcooked it into mush. You can add more liquid as it cooks without incidence. You can add bulgur right into the pot, and it happily cooks with other ingredients. Depending on what you’ve added (in our case, leeks, and mushrooms), you may need to add more liquid. No worries, this is the perfect beginner's grain.
Final Thoughts
The simplicity, the elegance, and yes, the sheer deliciousness! You won’t need much else to accompany this decadent centerpiece. We enjoyed this with a bit of mushroom gravy and a few baked chips (because that’s who we are). This is also a dish well-suited to veggie sides such as brussels sprouts and grapes, tomato and pomegranate salad, that fun one with apple, cranberry, and bacon, or a nice greenest green salad. Heck, have them all – it’s time to party healthy! Peace.
Printvegan stuffed butternut squash
Vegan stuffed butternut squash with a savory bulgur mushroom stuffing is divine simplicity that delivers superior flavor and uncomplicated elegance with ease.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Main Courses
- Cuisine: vegan
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash cut lengthwise with the seeds removed
- 2 leeks thinly sliced (or 1 medium onion diced)
- 1 stalk of celery, diced small (about ½ cup)
- 4-5 button mushrooms, diced (about 1 ½ cups)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp. sage
- 1 tsp. rosemary
- 1 tsp. thyme
- 1 cup dried bulgur
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- ¼ cup dried cranberries (or diced dried apricots)
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 4000F (2000C) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Trim the ends off the squash and cut it lengthwise. Clean out the seeds and rub a pinch of sage, rosemary, thyme, and salt in each squash piece.
- Place the squash, cut side down, on the tray, and bake for 20 minutes or until tender.
- While the squash is baking, sauté the leeks, celery, and mushrooms for 5-8 minutes until the mushrooms have released their moisture.
- Add the minced garlic, sage, rosemary, and thyme and stir for 30 seconds.
- Add the bulgur and 3 cups of vegetable broth. Bring the pot to a low boil, lower the heat, cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes until the bulgur is tender and the liquid is absorbed. Remove the stuffing from the heat.
- When the squash is done, allow it to cool enough that you can handle it. Trim away the cook squash flesh, cube it and add it to the stuffing.
- Mix in the cranberries and walnuts. Then stuff each squash, place them on the tray, and return them to the oven to heat for an additional 10 minutes.
Notes
- Be sure to practice care when cutting the squash. If you can balance it on the bigger end, cut it straight downwards. Alternatively, you can lay it on its side. Use a folded towel to help keep it secure.
- You can bake the squash and make the stuffing a day ahead. Then stuff and bake. It will take about 20 minutes to heat through after refrigeration.
- Although we really love the combination of dried cranberries and walnuts, use any mix of dried fruit and nuts desired. Apricots and pecans are also a choice.
- Leftover squash heats well in the microwave, or wrap it tightly in foil and warm it up in the oven. As a stovetop alternatively, wrap them in foil and heat them in a steamer basket.
Keywords: vegan stuffed butternut squash
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