Butternut Squash with Rainbow Quinoa is a delicious salad made with roasted butternut squash, dried fruits, and multi-color quinoa.
Our Butternut Squash with Rainbow Quinoa is a healthy and delicious recipe that is great served as a side dish (perhaps with our Crumb-Crusted Pork Chops) – or as a meatless main dish salad! This beautiful recipe came about all from ingredients we had on hand – as well as the desire for something a little healthier to eat!
First we roasted some cubes of fresh butternut squash in the oven. While that cooked, we sautéed onions and garlic in a pan on the stove. Then – in the same sauté pan – we added the quinoa and seasonings including sage and savory (poultry seasoning also works), raisins, some frozen cranberries we had on hand, plus vegetable stock to cook the quinoa. Once the quinoa was cooked through, we tossed in the roasted squash, some fresh parsley and some chopped walnuts!
This dish is a wonderful mix of earthy flavors from the quinoa, sweet caramelized butternut squash and raisins, tartness from the cranberries and crunch from the walnuts! (Feel free to adapt the ingredients based on what you have on hand in your own kitchen!) It can be served hot off the stove, or at room temperature.
PrintButternut Squash with Rainbow Quinoa
Butternut Squash with Rainbow Quinoa is a delicious salad made with roasted butternut squash, dried fruits, and multi-color quinoa.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Stove top
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 pound butternut squash, peeled, and cut into 1/4 inch thin bite sized pieces
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup onion diced
- 2 teaspoon garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dry sage
- 1/2 teaspoon savory or poultry seasoning
- 1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 1 cup rainbow quinoa
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup walnut pieces, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a small bowl, mix squash with half the oil, salt and pepper. Pour out onto a sheet pan and roast for 20-25 minutes or until tender. Set aside.
- While squash is roasting, in a medium pot, heat remaining oil over medium high and add onions. Sauté for three minutes then add garlic. Cook for 30 seconds and add sage, savory, cranberries, raisins, stock, quinoa and salt. Cover, bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. After 12 minutes, turn off the burner and allow the quinoa to sit covered for 15 more minutes.
- After 15 minutes, add squash, parsley and walnuts.
- Stir and serve hot but also good cold or at room temperature.
You may also like:
Quinoa with Chicken, Artichokes and Spinach
Quinoa Salad with Pecans, Orange and Currants
Roasted Butternut Squash with Swiss Chard
This dish looks lovely, can it be frozen?
Thanks
Hi Sharon – we haven’t tried freezing it ourselves but I think it would work. The butternut squash might be a little softer after being frozen however so if you don’t mind that, definitely give it a try!