Popular dish of roasted butternut squash filled with lentils, leek and mushrooms meets with Japanese staple seasoning, Miso.Not only packed with nutrient rich healthy ingredients this dish is filled with amazing aroma from Miso. This recipe is perfect as a plant based main dish or a side dish.(Total time excludes soaking lentils)
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine American, Japanese inspired
Keyword gluten free, healthy, Japanese inspired, miso, vegan, vegetarian
Prep Time 15minutes
Cook Time 1hour15minutes
Total Time 1hour30minutes
Servings 2
Author Mio
Equipment
oven
Ingredients
Butternut squash
1smallbutternut squash - about 480g (1lb)
healthypinch ofsea salt and black pepper
Lentil filling
75g / 2.6ozdry brown lentils (1/3 cup and 1 tbsp) - see the recipe note below (*1)
1tbspapple cider vinegar - for soaking lentils
1/2Japanese leek (or small regular leek if you don't have) - sliced into 1.5-2cm (0.5-0.7inch)
5stringsgreen beans - trimmed, and roughly chopped
1 tbsp +1 tspwhite miso paste (not yellow one) - mix with balsamic vinegar to soften
1tbspbalsamic vinegar
1/2tbspextra virgin olive oil
healthy pinch ofsea salt and black pepper
1/4cupswalnuts - chopped
To serve (optional)
bed of greens
Instructions
Prepare lentils
The night before place dry lentils in a large bowl with plenty of water, add 1 tbsp of vinegar. Soak at least for 8 hours. Drain, rinse and cook lentils for about 20 minutes or until they are done. (I recommend cooking lentils before preparing butternut squash for time efficiency)
prepare butternut squash;
Preheat the oven at 210℃ (410°F). Carefully cut butternut squash in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds with knife or a spoon. Drizzle with a little olive oil, season with black pepper and sea salt.
Wrap the halves with foil, place on baking tray and cook for 40-50 minutes or until they are cooked through.
Make the miso lentil filling
Heat olive oil in the pan over medium heat, add garlic and leek and sautée until they become fragrant.
Add eggplant, mushrooms, green beans and well-drained cooked lentils and cook for 5-8 minutes. Add in miso – vinegar slurry and chopped walnuts, stir to coat the filling evenly and turn off the heat.
Bake stuffed butternut squash
Once butternut squash is cooked, place on the baking sheet or dish. Fill in the squash cavities with lentil filling. (→ see the recipe note below *2 &*3)
Place back in the oven to roast another 10 -15 minutes.
Carefully take out the baking pan with butternut squash from the oven.Transfer to the plate and serve with choice of greens.
Enjoy!
Notes
(*1) you can use canned lentils for your convenience, but I recommend you to soak and cook your own lentils as this process helps break down the “anti-nutrients” in lentils that prevent us from absorbing some nutrients. (*2) if the "cavity" of butternut squash is too small to fill the lentil stuffing, you can take out the flesh to make the space after roasting. You can add in the squash flesh to the lentil filling, or can save it for other purposes. (*3) you may get leftover lentil filling (depending on the size of the squash of course). If you do, you can serve it with stuffed squash as in my photo or save it for later.