Moroccan Stuffed Acorn Squash
Posted by in FoodMoroccan Stuffed Acorn Squash (October Martha Stewart Living – not on Martha’s site yet- email me if you need the recipe) sounded like something fun and different. The few Moroccan dishes I’ve had, I’ve liked.
You start by cutting the squash in half, scooping out the seeds and roasting them. I love to roast acorn squash with butter and brown sugar in the hollow, but this was something new. Once it cools, you scoop out the squash.
Next, you cook some ground beef and mix in cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook onions and garlic and add bulgur wheat, water and salt and cook until the wheat is fluffy. You add in raisins (I didn’t have any, so I didn’t add this), parsley and pine nuts, as well as the squash you’ve scooped out of the shells. Put it back in the shells and bake for about 15 minutes. This looked and smelled good.
However, it was bland. I added a lot of extra salt and pepper when I was mixing it up and that didn’t help much. You can taste the cinnamon and nutmeg and the garlic, so those flavors come through. The pine nuts give a nice crunch, but it just didn’t have enough flavor and I don’t know why. Maybe raisins would have helped, but I feel as though it was missing seasonings. Maybe some red pepper would have perked it up. I just don’t know. I was really disappointed. And since I made the whole recipe and Mr. MarthaAndMe was away on business and the kids didn’t want it, I have three of these sitting in my fridge!
You can follow any comment to this entry through the RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Well, they should freeze OK while you ponder the problem. I don’t know enough about Moroccan cuisine to offer a reasonable suggestion.
I got so excited about this recipe because I love acorn squash, but then, what a letdown when you said it tasted bland. Maybe you should skip the meat and increase the onions, turning it into a vegetarian version? I’ll ask my daughter, since she lived in Morocco for a year and enjoyed cooking local food there.
I would love to hear suggestions. It was just not good. I liked all the flavor components and I like acorn squash but it just was not tasty.
I love all sorts of Arabic foods. Too bad this one was bland. I find I have to amp up the spices whenever I’m following a Western recipe for Arabic inspired food. Don’t know why.
Hi,
I left my Martha Stewart magazine in La Jolle and wanted to make this dish for company this weekend. Can you please email it to me.
Thanks
Sue
I really liked the idea of this dish but agree with you that it is bland. Tonight I am going to make it again, but with lamb instead of beef and I am planning to add feta and fresh mint. Hope this helps the dish!
Ooh! Sounds exciting. I would love to hear how it turns out!
I made it over the weekend and there is a link to the recipe in my post.
http://michaelbeyer.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/moroccan-style-stuffed-acorn-squashes/
I thought if you add a little butter and brown sugar to the shells before filling and add more than a pinch of the spices it would amp up the flavor.
Thanks for sharing!