Must Make Stew

Okay you got a break from stew from one night, but now it’s back.  Poor Brad though, he kind of thought he was getting another beef stew.  No no, vegetarian stew!

The other day when I posted about making a “traditional” stew, many of you commented, facebooked, and tweeted your creative stew ideas.  I was most intrigued with the butternut squash ideas because I happened to have one that was delivered in last week’s CSA bag.

While cooking last night I also tweeted for help with seasoning this baby.  Luckily it was a hit in the Shuker-Leitch household, so that means you get the recipe

Butternut Squash Stew

• 1 butternut squash
• 1 cup of dry chickpeas (or 1 can would also work)
• 2/3 cup couscous
• 1 large handful of spinach
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 large stalks celery
• 1 heaping tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 4 cups of water

Soak, rinse, cook the chickpeas as usual.  Bake butternut squash by cutting in half and placing face down in a baking dish for 50 minutes at 350 degrees.  Saute the onion, garlic, and celery in oil.  Chop the spinach into whatever size you desire.  Once the onion mixture is cooked through, add water, spinach, couscous and let cook for 5 minutes.  Take butternut squash out of oven, scrape out the seeds and start spooning the insides into the stew.  Add the maple syrup, cumin, and hot sauce and frozen peas.  Let cook on low for 20 minutes for flavours to meld together.

What ways do you like to season squash dishes?