Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash
A delicious fall recipe is this acorn squash filled with sausage. This dish stuffs acorn squash with toasted almonds and a savory pork sausage.After that, it is cooked until the sausage filling is golden brown and the squash is soft.
Yield: 4
Materials
- 2 Acorn Squash ends cut off cut in half and seeds scooped out
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil divided 1 tablespoon for the acorn squash and 1 tablespoon to cook the sausage
- ½ teaspoon Salt we use kosher salt
- ½ cup Sliced Almonds lightly toasted
- 1 Small Onion finely diced
- 2 Celery Ribs diced
- 2-3 Garlic Cloves minced
- 1 pound Pork Sausage casings removed and torn into small pieces or use bulk sausage
- Chopped Parsley for garnish optional
Instructions
- Additionally, you'll need: Pastry brush, big baking sheet, and parchment paper
- Set oven temperature to 400°F.
- Grease a big baking sheet; this will help it from sticking and make cleanup easier.
Prepare the acorn squash
- Cut a tiny slice from the acorn squash's two ends, being careful not to cut into the flesh too much.
- Cut each in half lengthwise; in the middle, so that the ends of each half are chopped off.
- Gently remove the seeds using a spoon.
- Place the hollow side up of each half on the baking sheet. Add a small amount of salt and a light coat of olive oil.
- The acorn squash should bake for 20 minutes.
Prepare the sausage mixture while the acorn squash is in the oven
- In a nonstick pan over medium heat, toast the almonds until they become lightly brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. Keep a watch on them and shake the skillet often to prevent burning. Take the skillet off of the burner.
Cook the sausage
- In a big, deep pan, heat up one tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Stir constantly and sauté the onions and celery for 3 minutes, or until the onions become transparent and begin to soften.
- Stirring constantly, sauté the garlic for one minute after adding it.
- Add the sausage and turn the heat up to medium-high. Cook, stirring regularly and breaking up large chunks with a wooden spoon or spatula, for approximately 5 to 6 minutes until browned.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the almond slices, toss to mix, and simmer, stirring often, for 5 to 6 minutes, or until the almonds are cooked through.
- If desired, remove extra rendered oil. Refer to the notes section.
- If necessary, add salt after tasting the sausage. As an example, we didn't add anything further to ours.
- To prevent steaming, remove the skillet from the heat and let it cool somewhat.
Stuff the acorn squash
- Set oven temperature to 350°F.
- Spoon out the sausage mixture amongst the four pieces of acorn squash.
- Put them back in the oven and bake for a further twenty minutes, or until a fork or knife inserted into the squash comes out soft.
- To prevent the acorn squash's bottom from giving out, serve using a spatula. If preferred, garnish with finely chopped parsley and savor.
Notes
After browning, there may be too much oil left behind, depending on the sausage. These simple methods can help you remove it from the pot: Remove the saucepan from the burner. Place the browned sausage in the saucepan, tipping it slightly so that the oil collects in the opposite direction from the meat. Scoop most (or all) of it out using a ladle or big spoon. After leveling the pot and returning it to the heat source, proceed with the recipe.