Leftover Stuffed Butternut saved my neck.
Let me set the scene: a Sunday around 11:00 am and you're wondering what you're going to make for lunch. You head to your fridge in search of an idea and there you find half a butternut squash, a chopped steak, some homemade dried duck breast, and some leftover chimichurri sauce. And you know you have an old piece of stale bread, half an onion, the rest of which you used the day before, a few cloves of garlic and walnut kernels. And then an idea pops into your head, you are going to stuff the butternut with leftovers.
I'm sure you've experienced this scene before, not necessarily on a Sunday and not necessarily with the same leftovers. The advantage is that to use the leftovers, this kind of recipe can serve you after Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, or the last meal with your mother-in-law.
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Leftover Stuffed Butternut's ingredients
I will give you the ingredients I used for this recipe. Then, I'll give you some ideas to twist this recipe.
Butternut: This pear-shaped squash leaves a pleasant nutty taste in your mouth. It will serve as a recipient and a base for the stuffing.
Ground steak: It will bring a little fat and a meaty taste to the preparation.
Dried duck breast: I usually prepare it and have some in the fridge for the aperitif. I had a piece of duck breast left over which, once diced, went perfectly with the stuffing.
Chimichurri: It has the advantage in this recipe to bring a welcome herbaceous note.
Onion: Indispensable in almost every cuisine in the world, it brings power to the stuffing and the dish.
Garlic: I don't think I can live without it. A memory from my childhood of chicken stuffed with garlic that has never left me.
Walnuts: The slight bitterness of the walnuts offsets the sweetness of the butternut. And the fact that they are not chopped up very much allows you to have different textures in your mouth when you bite into a piece.
Stale bread: To avoid wasting bread, you can use it to make French toast, breadcrumbs, or as in this case the binder for stuffing. Soak it in milk to rehydrate it before blending.
5 ideas to twist the recipe
There are many ideas for this kind of recipe. I'll give you some of them:
Roast Poultry: Whether it's turkey, capon, or chicken, feel free to put your leftovers in your stuffing.
Stews: Whether you have a bit of beef bourguignon, ragù, or a venison stew leftover mash it with a fork and mix it into your stuffing, it will bring a lot of flavors to the whole.
Rice: Perfect for stuffing, especially if it contains a lot of starch, the rice will help hold the whole thing together and bring a starchy source to your recipe.
Cooked Root Vegetables: A simmered, or baked root vegetable stuffing will be a perfect asset to bring maximum flavor to your dish.
Mushrooms: A key product of the fall season, they go very well with butternut squash.
You can imagine the recipe in a vegetarian way, and I can't advise you enough to have a look here: Cranberry quinoa stuffed roasted butternut squash
Tips & tricks
Butternut: To fill the squash properly, you will have to dig it out. To do this, I suggest you trace the shape with the blade of a knife. Then draw squares in this shape. This will allow you to remove the cubes of flesh with a spoon.
Eggs: You can add egg to the filling. When cooked, the white will help to maintain the filling.
Walnuts: You can roast the nuts before adding them to the stuffing to give them more taste.
Bread: Since it's stale, you'll have to soak it in milk before blending it. Your blender will thank you.
Cooking: Put the stuffed butternut at 150°C for 1 hour. Then increase the oven to 180°C for 20 minutes. The tip of your knife should not meet any resistance in the flesh of the squash.
Conservation
You can keep the cooked squash in your refrigerator for a maximum of 48 hours. Avoid freezing it, as it will lose a lot of water and change its consistency.
📖 Recipe
Leftover Stuffed Butternut Squash
You may have wondered what you could do with the leftovers from Thanksgiving, a holiday season meal, or Sunday with your in-laws. Or how you could make use of those few unused products that are lying around in your fridge. Butternut squash stuffed with leftovers is the answer.
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 80
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 peoples 1x
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Western
Ingredients
- ½ butternut squash
- ½ onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 7 cm of stale bread
- 5 cm dried duck breast without the skin
- 90 g ground steak
- 2 teaspoons of chimichurri
- 20 g of walnuts
- 10 cl of milk
- 2 pinches of salt
- 2 turns of pepper mill
Instructions
- Remove the seeds from the squash.
- Draw a shape in the squash about 1.5 cm from the edge. Slash the shape lengthwise, then widthwise to form cubes.
- Remove the cubes with a spoon and reserve the flesh.
- Soak the bread in milk to soften it. Then collect it.
- Except for the ground steak, put all the ingredients in your blender.
- Pulse to make a smooth filling. Pour the resulting mixture into a bowl, add the ground steak. Add salt and pepper.
- Place the filling in the cavity of the butternut squash.
- Bake the squash at 150°C for 1 hour, then increase the oven to 180°C for 20 minutes.
- The squash is cooked if the tip of your knife easily penetrates the flesh left on the edges.
Notes
- Butternut: To fill the squash properly, you will have to dig it out. To do this, I suggest you trace the shape with the blade of a knife. Then draw squares in this shape. This will allow you to remove the cubes of flesh with a spoon.
- Eggs: You can add egg to the filling. When cooked, the white will help to maintain the filling.
- Nuts: You can roast the nuts before adding them to the stuffing to give them more taste.
- Bread: Since it's stale, you'll have to soak it in milk before blending it. Your blender will thank you.
- Cooking: Put the stuffed butternut at 150°C for 1 hour. Then increase the oven to 180°C for 20 minutes. The tip of your knife should not meet any resistance in the flesh of the squash.
- You can keep the cooked squash in your refrigerator for a maximum of 48 hours. Avoid freezing it, as it will lose a lot of water and change its consistency.
Keywords: How to use leftovers, Thanksgiving leftover, Holliday season leftover, butternut squash
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