A great fall or winter side dish or vegetarian main. I have to give full credit my Mom for this wonderful recipe. With a few vegetarians in the family Mom conjured this one up a couple of years ago as a great vegetarian Christmas dinner option. Since then it is a family favourite – amongst both the veggies and turkey lovers!

This makes 6-8 main dish sized servings (depending on the size of your squash).

Start by baking the acorn squash, skin on sliced either in half if small, or into reasonable portion sized discs and de-seeded. Lightly coat the flesh of the squash in oil and bake at 375oC until easily pierced with a fork (approximately 30-40 minutes). Adding a little water to the bottom of the baking pan can sometimes help speed this up and stop the squash from drying-out.

For the quinoa you will need:

• 1 white onion, diced

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

• 3 stalks of celery, finely sliced

• 1 cup of chopped cremini mushrooms

• 2 ½ cups of vegetable broth

• 1 package a quinoa (approximately 2 cups)

• ½ cup chopped walnuts

• ½ cup dried cranberries

• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme

• Salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet or wok with a lid, sauté the onion, garlic and celery. Add the mushrooms and cook until lightly browned. Add the thyme. Add the quinoa and vegetable broth, stirring to combine well and coat in the liquid. Leave this to simmer covered until the quinoa is soften and easily fluffed with a fork and all of the liquid is gone – approximately 15 minutes (or follow packages instructions for the specific quinoa type). If it begins to dry-out, add a little more vegetable broth.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the dried cranberries and chopped walnuts.

Assemble your stuffed quash by spooning the quinoa mixture into the centre of the squash and serve garnished with a thyme sprig or a little fresh chopped parsley. It goes great with the traditional holiday sides.