Kitchen Gadget Girl Cooks

With an over abundance of squash from our Two Small Farms CSA, I was looking for new recipes to try for last week’s menu plan. The recipe for Gingered Butternut Squash and Wild Rice in Lorna Sass’s book Whole Grain Everyday Every Way caught my eye.

Even though the recipe included a few techniques I don’t use regularly, it was not difficult to follow. I made the wild rice in my pressure cooker earlier in the afternoon, so it was ready to go when I put the dish together. And besides having to peel and prepare the butternut squash, the dish was pretty easy.

This would be a great dish for Thanksgiving, bright and colorful for a harvest table. Leftovers were also very tasty, even right out of the fridge!

Gingered Butternut Squash with Wild Rice
adapted from Whole Grain Everyday Every Way

• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks
• Salt
• 1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated (use your microplaner!)
• 3 teaspoons honey
• 2 cups cooked wild rice
• 1 Tablespoon butter

Pour 1 cup water in a heavy pot, bring to a boil. Add in salt to taste. Stir in half of the ginger, add the chopped squash, and sprinkle the remaining ginger over the top. Cover and cook over medium-high heat until the squash is cooked, 5-8 minutes. Check every few minutes and add boiling water, if needed, to maintain water level.

Transfer squash to a serving platter and tent with foil to keep warm. Stir honey into pot and boil over high heat until slightly reduced and syrupy. Stir in wild rice and butter. Simmer 1 more minute, then pour over squash and serve.

Notes: The original recipe called for coarsely chopping the ginger, but my family found the larger chunks of ginger a little too much. I also needed to add quite a bit more water to the pan while the squash cooked. Watch carefully to make sure the squash does not stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.