The Nutty Butcher

Oven baked butternut squash takes forever to make but is my absolute favorite, when it comes to fall-winter dishes. I spent two hours in the kitchen preparing this dish and it didn´t even come out as good looking as last time I made it. Sometimes this dish clearly turns evil and comes out looking like absolute hell. You can always try to glam it up with some fresh basil, though.

But no regrets. I made so much that a lot of the bean, tofu and squash filling ended up in a leftover pie. I could either treat my whole extended family for dinner or prepare lunch boxes for the rest of the week. I`ll always choose the latter.

Here is how to make oven baked butternut squash. I used canned, pre-cooked beans in order to save myself some time.

Preparation time: 1 h 45 min (at least)

Servings: 5

Equipment needed: oven dish/baking tray, determination and power of will (lots)

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 lemon (juice only)
• 200 g frozen whole leaf spinach
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
• 250 g black beans
• 250 g kidney beans
• 250 g firm tofu
• 40 g cashews
• salt
• black pepper

How to make oven baked butternut squash

1. heat oven to 200 C/
2. cut the butternut squash in half
3. bake the butternut squash for about 1 h (the pulp starts to sweat and smell sweet when ready
4. squeeze out as muck liquid as possible of the tofu, mince the tofu and marinate with crushed garlic, lemon juice and salt for about 15 min
5. rinse the beans and mix with the tofu
6. chop and fry the onion in olive oil until soft, thaw the spinach under lid in the pan and stir the mixture with beans and tofu
7. season the bean, tofu and spinach mix with pepper and salt, add 2 tbsp of olive oil
8. when the butternut squash is baked, scoop out as much pulp as possible (should be easy to scoop out) and mix with tofu, beans and spinach
9. fill the pumpkin shells with pulp, beans, tofu and spinach
10. bake for about 20 min
11. top with chopped cashew and bake for another 5 min
12. season with salt and pepper if needed
13. sprinkle with some nutritional yeast (optional)

Carb, dietary fiber, protein and fat content (per serving/in total)

Per serving:

• net carb: 36,6 g
• protein: 19,82 g
• total fat: 15,63 g
• saturated fat: 2,43 g
• dietary fiber: 16,08 g
• kcal: 388,54

In total:

• net carb: 183,2 g
• protein: 99,1 g
• total fat: 78,15 g
• saturated fat: 12,13 g
• dietary fiber: 80,4 g
• kcal: 1942,7