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Acorn Squash Stuffed with Wild Rice Walnuts and Hickory-baked Tofu

A baked acorn squash stuffed with wild rice, walnuts, cranberries, and hickory-baked tofu, seasoned with herbs and spices.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Wild rice and sage work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 23 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven350 degrees
Time45 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the squash

  1. Cut each squash in half crosswise and scoop out and discard the seeds and strings.

  2. If necessary, trim the top and bottom so the squash will sit level, and place cut side up on a rimmed baking sheet. If the squash is too hard to trim the top and bottom, do it after the squash is cooked.

  3. Sprinkle each half with a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.

  4. Cut 2 tablespoons of butter into 8 pieces and dot each squash half.

  5. Cover the pan with foil and bake until squash is just moist and tender, about 45 minutes.

Cook the rice and vegetables

  1. Meanwhile, combine the rice, broth, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and the 2 cups water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

  2. Reduce the heat to simmer, partially cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice is tender, about 40 minutes.

  3. Drain rice if there is still a lot of liquid in the pan.

  4. In a 10-inch sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Swirl to coat the pan and sauté the onion, garlic, celery, and carrot until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.

  5. Cover the pan, adjust the heat to medium-low, and cook the vegetables until crisp-tender, 5 minutes longer.

  6. Add the sage, thyme, and parsley and sauté 1 more minute. Remove from the heat.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a large bowl, combine the cooked rice, sautéed vegetables, tofu, nuts, and cranberries.

  2. Taste and add more salt and pepper, and other seasonings, if needed.

  3. Mound the rice evenly into each squash half.

  4. Cut remaining 2 tablespoons butter into 8 pieces and dot squash halves.

  5. Cover the pan with foil and bake until rice mixture is heated through, about 20 minutes.

Make ahead and reheat

  1. Make the entire dish ahead, wrap each stuffed squash in foil and refrigerate up to 3 days.

  2. Reheat uncovered in the microwave for about 5 minutes, or bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Wild rice + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + sagetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Nutmeg + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together642 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Sage + walnuttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together179 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Acorn squash
Forms the edible shell that holds the filling and softens to a tender, moist base.
Wild rice
Provides a chewy, firm texture that holds its shape inside the stuffing.
Walnuts or pecans
Add crunch and a toasted, nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft rice and squash.
Tofu
Adds protein-rich body and a savory, firm bite to the stuffing.
Sweetened dried cranberries
Contribute chewy bursts of sweetness and a tart edge that balances the savory filling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the squash as it bakes and melts over the filling.

The step that matters

Simmer the rice until tender and drain excess liquid. Wild rice is tough and absorbs liquid slowly. Undercooked grains stay hard, while excess liquid left in the pan makes the stuffing soggy and loose once it is mounded into the squash.

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (acorn, pepper, butter, wild rice, chicken, olive, onion):

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against acorn, pepper, butter, wild rice, chicken, olive, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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