roasted acorn squash with quinoa & cauliflower pilaf

My fiancé thought we should eat more veggies. Last week, I bought a bunch of random vegetables at the farmers market. Wanted to see what I could do with them. He said vegetables, I made tonight’s dinner vegetarian. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

roasted acorn squash with quinoa cauliflower pilaf
A very healthy, fall meal! Great for vegetarians. Could also add ground sausage or beef to this and it’d taste great!

Here’s what I found in my pantry:

1 acorn squash
1 white onion
1 large cauliflower
quinoa
cilantro
Manchego el Trigo cheese from Spain

I halved the acorn squash, gutted it, seasoned each half with salt & pepper, and wrapped in foil to roast in a 400 degree oven until soft (about 40 minutes).

I cut the cauliflower into small pieces, dressed in a casserole dish with extra virgin olive oil, chopped cilantro, and salt & pepper. Covered then roasted for about 30 minutes until softened. I went for a 25 minute jog while this roasting was all happening.

After hitting the pavement listening to Avicci radio on Pandora, I cooked my quinoa as directed with half of a chopped white onion.

I mixed my roasted cauliflower with the cooked quinoa and onion to form a pilaf. I seasoned to taste with salt and pepper, and the stuffed the damn squash! I topped the pilaf with Spanish manchego cheese my future mother in law bought me, a drizzle of olive oil, and some fresh cilantro. It didn’t suck! My fiancé liked it too:)

Oh, and we cheated on the whole vegetarian thing. I went to Eataly last week in NYC and bought this prosciutto. #meatheads