I don’t post a food flop every Friday, but now and then I’ll share my latest kitchen bummers, because I certainly have plenty. I hope you’ll grab that picture above and share your own flops at your blogs and then comment below with the link!
So here’s my Friday Food Flop for today:
Aren’t these stuffed acorn squash pretty? Inside is just ground beef (grass-fed of course) mixed with onion and salt & pepper. Too bad they were SO bland. Anyone have suggestions for jazzing these up?
$40 worth of Safe Sexy Stainless Steel!
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I had bland issues with stuffed acorn squash, too. Last week, I experimented a bit. I had leftover Nourishing Tradition’s Pottage bon Femme soup, so I added some crumbled up sourdough flatbread I made that was going stale to add thickness and some Sicilian chicken sausage to add flavor. I stuffed the squash with this weird soup mixture, and it was amazing! I was so happy because I was ready to throw in the towel with stuffed acorn squash.
I usually mix quinoa with lamb or beef, sundried tomatoes, onion, garlic, salt and pepper and parsley together when I stuff squash or zucchini.
For ground beef, maybe use a meatloaf recipe that doesn’t have too much tomato. I’ve made stuffed acorn squash with the breaksfast sausage recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Delish!!!
Love these ideas!!
Put some sharp cheddar cheese on the top…add in some green pepper, or olives, etc.
If it’s the meat, I’d add a little garlic powder and powdered ginger. Or maybe Worcestershire sauce. If it’s the squash I can’t help you because I find all squash disgusting except eggplant and pumpkin bread (I don’t even like pumpkin pie much). It’s definitely pretty! I just can’t eat it. (I do have a latex allergy, though, and it may be a self defense mechanism- on the other hand I do like bananas).
Add worchestershire & balsamic vinegar in equal parts, a dab of honey, and some basil to the meat in addition to your salt, onions, and pepper. Then top the stuffed acorns with a grated swiss.
It’s awesome!
I find that tomato sauce makes everything taste better! (Either just tomato paste + water + seasonings, or homemade sauce, or even pureed tomatoes mixed into the filling.) A bit of vinegar or lemon/lime juice always makes the flavours (or lack thereof) pop, especially in soups. And some grated sharp cheddar on top never hurt anybody
. If it’s the squash itself that’s bland, however, sorry but I’ve never found a remedy for that! Sweetening it up with maple syrup just makes it taste like, well…bland squash with maple syrup. Kinda like air freshener just adds another layer of ick to an odor 
.
I would saute onion, garlic, pepper until soft, add beef, a bit of tomato paste, salt, pepper,herbs, mix and cook a few minutes (can add veggies & beans if using) Then stuff squash and bake. When you saute first it will release all the flavors step up the flavor. Also try adding some chili peppers or curry powder.
It just so happens that I stuffed both Hubbard and Acorn squash last week. I do it the same way I would stuff a huge zucchini. I make a meatball recipe – ie, homemade breadcrumbs (from my sourdough “bricks”), onion, garlic, a mixure of mozzarella and parmasan, egg, a some of the tomato sauce, salt, pepper, chopped oregano, basil – whatever is still growing in the herb garden. This time my sauce was home canned tomatoes mixed with tomato sauce – with basil, oregano, garlic. A thin layer of sauce goes on the bottom, some goes in the meat mixture, then I pour the rest over the stuffed squash and put the rest of the grated cheese over. I have no recipe, just improvise. Always good.
OK – now for my Friday Food Flop. Still working on getting that perfect sourdough bread. My sourdough is whole wheat. To help my sourdough get more active, I started to put a spoonful of potato flour in during some of the feedings. Not a lot. It seems to work well. Well, that saying “if a little is good, a lot is better” – NOT true. I was making “Kitchen Stewardship” Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread, starting with the sponge the night before. In the morning, it was BEAUTIFUL and I was thrilled. When adding the rest of the flour, I thought I would use some potato flour, probably used about a cup. BAD idea. It made the dough so sticky, and seemed to break it down to a runny blob. I took a small amount and tried adding flour to it to see if I could revive it —- no amount of flour worked – stayed sticky and runny. Ugh – had to throw out the whole thing. Big lesson learned. One of these days my loaf will look like the picture!!!
Brush it lightly with maple syrup and cinnamon before adding the ground beef. Sprinkle some real sea salt over the whole thing and then bake.
I know I’m a little late with this post, but I had to comment because I’ve certainly been there!
I usually bake the Acorn Squash before I stuff it – because I typically stuff it with some kind of stovetop randomness. The squash halves seem to travel well and don’t lose shape in the oven without filling, so this works for me.
I just blogged about this – http://bit.ly/9fT9T3 – but basically I stuffed 1/2 an AC with apples & walnuts sauteed with butter & cinnamon; then had the other half stuffed with tomato sauce & sausage for lunch. Really yummy.
Score some diagonal cuts on the the inside of the squash with a knife before stuffing it so more of the meaty drippings get in to the squash. I’d also throw a little garlic and salt on the squash underneath the meat .