Another healthy and delicious quinoa recipe! The combination of the salty cheese and olives with the sweet butternut squash is amazing! Easy to put together and looks quite attractive. This Mediterranean quinoa stuffed butternut squash is a great idea if you are having guests and you want to impress them with something a bit more interesting that doesn’t require too much effort. If you want to turn this meal into a vegan one, just skip the cheese and it will still be delicious!
I am not going to talk again about the health benefits of quinoa as I have already covered this in a couple of posts – the latest Easy Seafood Quinoa Paella recipe and also in the post about my simple quinoa Gluten-free Walnut brownie. Besides the great health benefits, I also love the fact that it’s much quicker to cook than rice for example!
In order to make room for your Mediterranean quinoa mix, you need to scoop out some of the flesh and seeds. The easiest way to do it is with an ice cream scoop, rather than a regular spoon.
Once you get the flesh out, save it to make something sweet with it. You can use it to make these decadent healthy No Bake Pumpkin cream chocolate cookies. Sometimes I just eat the cooked pumpkin/squash in a bowl with some cinnamon and honey, super sweet treat!
When you start preparing for this quinoa stuffed butternut squash recipe, the first thing to do is to put the two squash halves in a hot oven. By the time you are done preparing the veggie quinoa mix in the pan, your squash should be pretty much done baking. Once it’s soft you will be able to take the flesh out and distribute the cheesy quinoa mix. You get to serve a super delicious and easy vegetarian meal!
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash
- 1/2 cubed courgette (zucchini)
- 1 chopped tomato
- 2/3 cup quinoa
- just above 1 cup hot water (2:1 water and quinoa)
- handful of black pitted olives
- 100 g cubed Feta (3.50 oz) (skip if vegan)
- 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
- grated Parmesan cheese (skip if vegan)
- extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). Halve the butternut squash, arrange the two halves on a baking tray and sprinkle some salt and a few drops of olive oil. Cook in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
- While the squash is roasting, add a splash of olive oil to a pan and heat to a medium temperature. Add the courgette and cook for 3-4 minutes with the lid on until it softens.
- Add the oregano, tomatoes, olives and quinoa to the pan followed by the hot water. Add salt to taste. Cook for about 10-15 minutes until the water has evaporated and the quinoa is cooked. Turn off the heat and add the Feta cubes to the mix.
- Once your squash is done, scoop out the seeds and most of the flesh. Distribute the veggie quinoa mix evenly between the two halves.
- Sprinkle some grated Parmesan cheese on top and put back in the oven to bake for another 10 minutes.
