Veg*n Cooking and Other Random Musings: Maple-Brown Sugar Roasted Acorn Squash Stuffed with Roasted Apples, Walnuts, and Cinnamon-Sugar Crumb Topping

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Maple-Brown Sugar Roasted Acorn Squash Stuffed with Roasted Apples, Walnuts, and Cinnamon-Sugar Crumb Topping

This yummy looking treat was Brett and I's Christmas morning breakfast. It was super easy to make and filled our apartment with the warm, mapley, and cinnamon-spice smell that is quite fitting for the season. I am not generally one to do anything special or nice for brunch as I am usually satisfied with something simple and I save my energy for our evening meals, but occasionally it is nice to make something special, and what better occasion than Christmas?

This recipe also features some Missouri grown bounty. Local, easy, seasonally appropriate, AND yummy, you can't ask for much more than that from a brunch, can you?

That's enough blabbering by me, check out this bad boy.















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Maple-Brown Sugar Roasted Acorn Squash with Roasted Apples, Walnuts, and Cinnamon-Sugar Crumb Topping
Serves two.

The Squash:
1 acorn squash, halved, seeds and stringy bits removed *
4 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tbsp brown sugar

The Filling:
2 apples, peeled and chopped +
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped +
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
dash nutmeg

The Topping:
4 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp raw organic sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2-3 tbsp Earth Balance

Preheat the oven to 400.

Pierce prepared acorn squash a few times with a knife. Fill seed cavity with maple syrup and brown sugar. Make sure the syrup coats as much of the squash flesh as possible.

Roast for 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel and chop apples, and chop up the walnuts. Toss them with the cinnamon, brown sugar, maple syrup, and nutmeg.

Stuff half the filling into each half of the squash and roast for an additional 35 minutes.

While the squash and filling are roasting, combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Using a fork or knife, cut in the Earth Balance until everything is all crumbly.

Top the squash with the crumble topping and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Let cool for a few minutes (if you can stand it), and enjoy!

If I get the itch to do something more "in depth" for brunch over the winter, this might be my go-to meal.

'Til next time.

10 comments:

jessy said...

now that's one helluva brunch to start your day! hooray! local + easy + seasonal + yummy does indeed = the best brunch ever! that's awesome! i can just imagine how glorious your house must have smelled while those yummies were baking up. mmmmmmmmm! so awesome! yay!

hmd said...

Mmmm! Looks fabulous! I always end up drooling over your posts :)

Laura said...

that sounds absolutely perfect!! sorry to hear your family isn't as supportive as they should be...belive me, it's only a choice few in my family who have begun to accept me! Isn't is strange how uptight family gets when you don't want to eat their food? Anyway, I'm glad you at least got to eat a delish meal on Christmas...I am convinced that maple syrup is a perfect food. Am I wrong?:)

Anonymous said...

That sounds really good! I am not usually one for sweet squash...I don't know why, but for some reason, squash is a vegetable to me and vegetables are supposed to be savory, not sweet. I would always pass on the maple syrup coated squash at family events growing up, opting instead for the normal non-sweetened veggies. I know, I am weird! But this recipe may be the one to change my mind...it looks delicious!

Courtney

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

What a great recipe! I can almost smell the aroma through the 'net.

J said...

Jessy - Haha, thank you, we thought it turned out really good. Though admittedly, we ate this more around "mid-day" than morning, neither of us could handle anything that sweet when we first get up.

It smelled wonderful and thankfully the smell lingered for awhile after we ate!

Heather - Haha, as I do yours! These were wonderful - and you know what - they were also super easy to make!

Laura - Thank you. I can't expect them to be. I mean, it is really only the one side of my family and many of them are old and set in their ways. It is weird how strange your family gets about food. I think it is that they feel offended in some ways and also uncomfortable because we are making different choices than they are.

Haha, maple syrup is pretty darn good.

Courtney - I'm not either, I'm with you, squash is a vegetable. After I had been eating squash exclusively as a vegetable for awhile, I realized when searching out recipes that most people eat them sweet. So I tried it, and it is pretty good, but I still prefer then done in a savory way.

I'd say you should try squash sweet at least once, I still prefer them savory, but it is a nice change up/

Lisa - Thanks and it was easy too! Wahoo! It did make our place smell wonderful.

veggievixen said...

OMG yummmm. that looks like the best meal in the world. :)

J said...

Veggie Vixen - Well, it wasn't spicy, so for me, it gets a strike against it there - :-) - but it was really good. Thank you!

T said...

Apples and squash are the greatest! I can definitely see eating this for dessert, or even as a side at thanksgiving (where every side seems to be sooo sweet.)

J said...

T - I didn't know it was such a good combination until I made this. It has a very "holiday" feel to it, I would take this over that sweet potato casserole with the icky marshmallows any day.