9:30 AM Butternut Squash & Leek Quiche

One day last month when I was looking for healthy vegetarian dishes to present to my family for our Christmas meal (none of us is vegetarian, but each of us had prepared dishes which were either all meat, or a cheese dip or log of some sort by accident), I stumbled across this Beautiful looking recipe for Butternut Squash & Leek Quiche from the blog Girl Interrupted Eating. I won't bore you with the details of the recipe as you can find it in the link above. Just make sure you know how to convert the measurements into our American version, haha! Thank ye Gods for the Internets!

Anywhoo, the only thing I changed in the recipe was that I used phyllo dough instead of making her crust and I added just a dash of Emeril's Essence (or Tony Chacherie's) to the egg mixture. Here's the end product, I didn't take many pictures.




Unfortunately, the change of crusts wasn't a good idea. The quiche didn't hold up too well when cut. Ah well, you live and you learn. But, the quiche was GLORIOUS to taste!!!! I'm not kidding. I kind of wanted to abandon all constraints and eat the whole friggin' pie plate. I'm very anxious to see how it tastes after it's been refrigerated now.

8:40 PM Stuffed Squash

Tonight I decided to finally make that quiche I was planning on making for Christmas and just didn't have time to make. I'll blog on the quiche later, but in the process of making the quiche, I had more squash than I needed as well as more leeks and I also needed to use up the baby bella mushrooms sitting in my fridge. So I experimented with a Stuffed Squash.

The part of the Butternut Squash I had leftover from the quiche was the perfect little bell part. The part that is hollowed out and gives us those Glorious little squash seeds which I like to roast. So I hollowed out the bell just like I normally do, and I placed the bell in a little dish and drizzled it with olive oil. I then placed it in a pre-heated oven of 400 degrees until the squash was a little soft.

While the squash was roasting, I boiled some water and made some Taboule as directed on the package, except for the "put in the refridgerator for 30 minutes part, I just let the grain steam on the counter.


After I had the Taboule started, I then sauteed my leeks, baby bella mushrooms, and some frozen peas.


Once the Squash was a little soft, I then removed the squash from the oven and began to stuff the bell in layers. 1st layer was the saute mix, then the 2nd layer was Taboule. I layered in this fashion until a final layer of Taboule was level with the top and then I garnished with the saute layer.




I then placed the Squash back in the oven to finish roasting. I served the squash right in its little baking dish.


So what's the verdict on the taste??

Well, it was ok. It wasn't Great, but it has promise. Firstly, my squash was a bit dry. Next time I will add more olive oil and I will cover the squash with foil to keep the moisture in. Also, it was missing something. I think it needed a small element of sweet. It may be that the butternut squash will be better once it's able to retain its moisture. But actually I think the recipe would benefit from the addition of some golden raisins at the time of layering just before the final roast. I think I will do that next time as this is a rather healthy dish and I feel I ought to work on it until I get it right. Plus it is relatively easy and has a nice presentation for dinner parties.