Another tasty rice alternative – butternut squash!

When you have excluded all grains from your diet, the current “go to” is cauliflower rice. But you might want something different on occasion. For the adventurous, here’s another tasty rice alternative – butternut squash!

A couple of years ago, I went to our local farmers market every weekend, met lots of vendors, and learned interesting things. By far the most interesting and tasty, was learning about “ricing” butternut squash. It’s fairly easy to do, very Vitamin A rich (gotta love those orange veggies), freezes well, and even cooks quickly. What’s not to love about that?

JP, one of the local farmers, told me about a dish his wife made with butternut squash “rice,” and I said, “Back up…did you say butternut squash RICE????” Yep, he did and gave me the instructions: peel it, chop it, “rice” it in the food processor. Nothing better – of course not to a squash farmer!

That sounds super simple and it’s not real hard, but you do need a little more info than that. Read on, and you’ll be “ricing” your fall butternut squash in no time!

Peeling

Always wash your veggies first. They grew on dirt that, guaranteed, had some kind of compost or fertilizer in it. Use a chef knife to cut off the stem end and the flower end (the bulb shaped end of the butternut where the bloom once was).

Then cut the squash into 2- or 3-inch wide sections, just long enough to be able to hold onto well. Use your potato peeler to strip the outside skin off, down to the orange flesh. Warning: the exposed squash will be a little bit slippery so hold on tight. More than once my squash has ended up in the trash can! Just wash it off and carry on!

De-seeding

Once the skin is off, you’ll want to remove the seeds from the bulb end. Split it in half to expose them, then use a spoon to scrape the seeds out. I use a grapefruit spoon because it’s got a little bit of serration on the tip. Pull all the strings off the seeds and roast ‘em for an extra treat!

“Ricing”

Now chop the rest of the squash down into ½-inch cubes, and chop in a food processor until roughly rice-sized bits. (This might take several rounds as you should only fill the processor bowl about one third full for effective chopping.) If you’re freezing it, 2 cups worth fits nicely in a quart freezer bag. Each cup is about a serving.

To serve as a bed of rice, you can steam it or microwave it just a couple of minutes and it’s done. I often add it to a ground meat dish as I near the end of the cooking time in the skillet – 2 cups to a dish that serves 4. My favorite is this Korean Beef from 5Dollardinners.com…I just add the squash instead of the cole slaw!

Fall means the “hard” squashes (butternut, acorn, and spaghetti) are in good supply and have great sales prices. Feeling adventurous? Grab that butternut squash and “rice” away! List your favorite way to use this new rice in the comments below!