Looking for a tasty fall meal to stretch your budget? These delicious butternut stuffed shells are just what the doctor ordered! Winter squash such as butternut is easy (and cheap!) to find this time of year. They are a budget stretching meatless meal (aka vegetarian!) to put into your rotation, and they are packed full of fiber and fantastic things like potasium, vitamin B6 and carotinoids. If you don’t have the shells on hand, think about using manicotti tubes or even lasagna noodles roll up style!
Note: Yankee Bill swears he doesn’t like winter squash-I let him eat two of these and comment on how delicious it was before I told him that the stuffing was made of butternut squash. His response:
“These are SQUASH?!?”
After which he proceeded to eat about four more. So if you have folks who believe they are not squash lovers try making a small batch (halve or quarter) and give them a taste!
Ingredients
- 4 C Mashed Butternut Squash
- 1 onion, diced
- 1TBS Butter
- 1/2 C Parmesan Cheese
- 1/8 tsp allspice
- Salt & Pepper
- 24 Large Shells
- 2 TBS Butter
- 2 TBS Flour
- 1 1/2 C Milk
- 1 tsp fresh Sage (chopped) or 1/2 tsp dried Sage
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Cook shells al dente--about 6 minutes. Spread out on a cookie sheet so they don't stick together while you are making the filling.
- Saute onion in butter until soft.
- In a large bowl mix together onion, squash, allspice, Parmesan cheese and salt & pepper to taste.
- Oil a 9X13 baking sheet.
- Fill each shell with the squash filling. A small teaspoon works well for this.
- Place shells, seam side up, in the baking dish.
- Pour sage sauce over shells and bake at 350 for 20 minutes
- In a small saucepan melt butter over medium heat.
- Add flour, sage and salt & pepper to taste. Whisk until bubbly.
- Pour in milk all at once and stir until sauce is thickened-approximately 4 or 5 minutes.
- Use any winter squash, including pumpkin
- Substitute ricotta or cottage cheese for the Parmesan (I'd still add a TBS or two for the salty punch)
- Use nutmeg with or in place of the allspice, or change it up completely and use curry powder for a completely different taste (in that case I'd consider halving or leaving out the cheese)
- Instead of a sage sauce, make a cheese sauce by leaving out the sage and adding in a half cup or so of cheese.
- Skip the homemade sauce and use packaged Hollandaise or country gravy.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
looks tasty. I will have to try these out. We love squash in our family, even the hubby. But it has to be served with meat. Damn men.
Mine will actually put up with a meatless meal once a week or so. . . maybe you could fry up some bacon and put it on the side
Sounds so good, I may have to use this as a springboard for a dish for my good friend who does a vegan diet at least one week a month. I love to cook for her, and I think I could tweak it and make it lovely (aka no dairy at all, I would go nuts!)