Red Quinoa-Brown Rice-Lentil Stuffed Squash (Gluten-Free)

by Maria Theresa Maggi on November 25, 2013

red quinoa brown rice lentil stuffed squash 2

Once upon a time, there was an unassuming whole food vegan (gluten-free) one-pot meal on my stove nearly every week. Like my Bright Yellow Spit Pea and Rice Pilaf, it had just 5 ingredients (6 if you count the cooking water). When it comes off the flame, it looks like this:

red quinoa brown rice lentil pilaf with spoon

After a half hour of unsupervised simmering on the stove and a few minutes of “down time” after that, it’s ready to spoon onto a plate, be part of a salad, a burrito or taco, or even an instant bowl of soup made with leftovers, veggies and their steam water (one of my easy vegan favorites):

red quinoa brown rice lentil instant soup

Often, though, my first taste of this has been right out of the pot, by the warm spoonful and straight into my mouth, before it goes into anything else.

Weeks hurried by. As I sketched and painted and dreamed up fancier things to blog about for the holidays, like the Gluten Free Sweet Potato Spice Cake with Apricot Carob Filling, this one pot meal was my mainstay. I’d find myself snapping a quick photo of it here and there in various stages of getting eaten up, thinking I would blog about it the next time. And the next.

As it came to pass that the actual Thanksgiving Day was very close at hand, it occurred to me that this one-pot vegan wonder would make a fabulous stuffing for squash, with nothing more added to it than a few dried cranberries and some fresh flat leaf parsley, maybe some extra seasonings or a few nuts or seeds. And thus, the Fastest Whole Food (Gluten-Free) Vegan Thanksgiving Stuffing in the West was born.

So now you’re armed and ready with the recipe for the Fastest Whole Food (Gluten-Free) Vegan Thanksgiving Stuffing in the West. If you’ll be facing down a SAD Thanksgiving table and don’t have a lot of time to cook, whip this up and pull it out of your whole food holster at proverbial “Aunt Milly’s” holiday get together. You won’t feel deprived, you’ll be eating great food, and I’m betting someone else will at least say, “hey, that looks pretty good.” It’s a sure-shot healthy meal in a dangerous boom town of fat and gluten and animal protein that can stand with the best of ’em. See you at high noon at the dinner table.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Maria (moonwatcher)

 

 

 

 

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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Veronica November 25, 2013 at 1:56 pm

Looks delicious and easy! I do have some delicata squash laying around that needs a purpose… 🙂

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2 moonwatcher November 25, 2013 at 4:02 pm

Thanks, Veronica–yep, it’s both those things! (At least I think so 🙂 ) A worthy purpose for those delicata needing one. 🙂

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3 Kathleen November 26, 2013 at 5:12 am

Perfect! I have a delicata squash sitting in my pantry that’s just been waiting for a great recipe like this. I love your approach to food … a simple base … lots of fresh toppings … and, very importantly IMO … pleasantly paced with never a rush-crush-get-it-all-together at the end. Thanks for sharing this one.

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4 moonwatcher November 26, 2013 at 8:41 am

Thanks, Kathleen! So glad this is hitting the mark perfectly for you. 🙂 I appreciate knowing the pleasant pace of my cooking style is one of the most important ingredients for you. That makes me thankful all over again to have you as a reader. Happy Thanksgiving!!

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5 Pat Meadows November 26, 2013 at 9:05 am

Happy Thanksgiving to you and to Romeo too, Maria. We will be just four: myself, my husband, and our two Romeo-equivalents: Orla, the lame little collie (lame being unfortunately an actual physical description, not an insult – she had a broken front leg which was not set, before we adopted her from an SPCA), and Rhys, the big Golden Retriever/Rottie mix. They are not service dogs, however, just pets. Rhys, at 90 lbs, is plenty large enough to be a service dog if we ever trained him to be, and I might someday. Orla is long and low, and only weighs 65 lbs. So as far as physical help goes, she couldn’t manage, especially since she only has three good legs. It’s a shame, she is extremely, extremely bright and learns very, very quickly.

Anyway, my husband is doing our shopping now, and we expect to have a nice day Thursday. The same to you both!
Cheers,
Pat

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6 Pat Meadows November 26, 2013 at 9:06 am

PS – how about more photos of Romeo? 🙂

Pat

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7 moonwatcher November 26, 2013 at 9:19 am

Happy Thanksgiving back to yours Pat! Your dogs sound absolutely wonderful, both of them. You all enjoy yourselves, and we will too. If the kids make it over (car troubles), I may see more of this:
https://fatfreevegan.com/slowmiracle/2013/03/08/nap-time/
Romeo and their dog Lucy like to nap together 🙂 (Well, they both just plain love a good nap. Inspiring.) Have a wonderful holiday.

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8 Marcia November 26, 2013 at 10:00 am

Perfect timing! I’ve been searching for a stuffing recipe to use with some Swan White Acorn squash and all I had to do was open your message! I think your idea about adding the dried cranberries is a great one and maybe I’ll use 1/2 dried cranberries and 1/2 golden raisins. I’d like to add some nuts also, which do you think would be best: walnuts, pecans, or almonds?? You’re the best!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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9 moonwatcher November 26, 2013 at 10:07 am

Thanks Marcia–I love it when serendipity works thing out! I would choose walnuts or pecans over the almonds in this particular dish. Even pistachios might go. Or pine nuts. Just my personal taste though. 🙂 The swan white acorn squash sounds really neat. 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving!!

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10 Nicole O'Shea November 26, 2013 at 10:08 am

I can see why you are moved to paint your food! Yum!! 🙂

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11 moonwatcher November 26, 2013 at 1:06 pm

Aw, thanks Nicole!! 🙂

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12 Carol McCabe November 28, 2013 at 6:22 pm

I made the Red Quinoa, Brown Rice, French Green Lentil Pilaf and stuffed 3 small Squash for a main entrée today. Because the price of Fennel was so high I used Celery Seed instead and Cumin. It was so good. I will for sure be making it again. Thanks for sharing. Hope your Thanksgiving was great .
Best regards.

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13 moonwatcher November 29, 2013 at 12:55 pm

Welcome, Carol! Thanks so much for letting me know you made this and that you enjoyed it and will make it again. It was one of my Thanksgiving blessings to find this comment. Best regards back to you. 🙂

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