Roasted Delicata Squash with Quinoa, Apple and Arugula Salad

Delicata “delicious” squash has a smooth, rich creamy taste and texture similar to butternut, without the peeling. The skin is thin, edible and add’s a crisp texture. It can be steamed in as little as seven minutes when cut into 1-inch cubes, baked, grilled or roasted in up to thirty minutes, and has a savory sweetness when caramelized.

This light-weight squash is easy to cut, clean and cook. If you’re feeling adventurous, the seeds can be roasted for a crunchy snack! Delicata squash is excellent paired with Sage Mountain Pork, onions, maple & cayenne pepper or simply with a pinch of salt!

Today I’ve decided to boost squash’s antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic and insulin-regulating benefits with two super foods! The most protein-rich food available, Quinoa contains all nine essential amino acids, is rich in iron, magnesium, B2, manganese, and lysine essential for tissue growth and repair.

Arugula, my favorite green discovered last summer working at Sage Mountain Farm, has surprising health benefits. Inactivating cancer-causing chemicals, arugula protects cellular DNA from damage, induces cell death in cells that have already become cancerous, and prevents tumor blood vessel formation and tumor cell migration. Wow! Arugula’s vitamin and mineral rich content are necessary for soft subtle healthy skin, healthy eyes by preventing eyestrain, strong bones decrease rick of osteoporosis, boosts mood naturally by increased production of serotonin, creates red blood cells and is an excellent blood cleanser and oxygenator.  Chlorophyll rich arugula has a strong detoxification effect, increases energy levels and is being studied to prevent against heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and depression.

Arugula, squash and apples are great weight loss food too! Replace foods that promote weight gain with leafy greens & veggies as a simple way to boost your nutritional intake and minimize body fat storing insulin spikes. In the long term this is a far easier way of keeping the weight off than restrictive dieting.

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Roasted Delicata Squash with Quinoa, Apple & Arugula Salad

Toss quinoa with arugula, apple, raisins and fresh herbs, then spoon the salad into a halved baked squash.

Ingredients:

• 2 Delicata squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 tablespoons golden raisins
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 Granny Smith apple, finely diced
• 1 large shallot, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped mint
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 2 cups arugula

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Brush the cut sides of the squash with 1 teaspoon of the olive oil and season with freshly ground Himalayan salt and pepper. Place the squash cut side down on a baking sheet and roast for about 45 minutes, until tender.
2. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, bring 2 cups of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the quinoa, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the raisins and simmer, covered, until the water is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Transfer the quinoa to a large bowl and let cool.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the vinegar and honey with the remaining 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of olive oil and season with freshly ground Himalayan salt and pepper. Add the dressing to the quinoa along with the apple, shallot, garlic, mint and parsley and toss well. Add the arugula and toss gently.
4. Set the squash halves on plates. Fill with the salad.
5. Give thanks… and enjoy!

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Additional Recipe

Healthy Roasted Squash Seeds:

Scoop the pulp and seeds from inside the squash and separate out the seeds. Place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and lightly roast them at 170°F for 15-20 minutes. By roasting at a low temperature for a short time you help to preserve their healthy oils.

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*Winter squash is a vegetable that might be especially important for us to purchase organic. Recent agricultural trials have shown that winter squash can be an effective intercrop for use in remediation of contaminated soils, according to whfoods.com. For this reason, make a special point of purchasing certified organic winter squash from a local, small certified organic farm. We at Sage Mountain Farm are dedicated to growing the most nutritious, delicious certified organic fruits and vegetables.

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At Sage Mountain Farm, we supply only the best nutrient rich produce grown in good healthy soil, mountain rich air using the cleanest natural volcanic spring water available to our local customers in San Diego County, Riverside and Palm Springs.

Let’s make small farms in our region stronger and profitable.

NOW AVAILABLE!

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This week in my Sage Mountain Farm CSA box:

Local Raw Clover Honey, Strawberry Watermelon Jam, Local Farm-fresh Eggs, Concord grapes, Certified Organic tomatoes, a variety of Apples, Oranges, Radishes, Candy Onions, Tomatillos, Delicata & Butternut Squash, Dates Medjool, Watermelon, and a bag big of luscious Arugula.

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Together, let’s get healthy!


Many blessings to you and yours!

The Mighty Onion Prepared with Acorn Squash and Yogurt

It’s hard to pinpoint just one reason to love the onion!

Eating onions gives more to our lives than simply flavor to our food. Incorporating onions into our diet can alter the course of major disease, such as heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and most forms of cancer. Beneficially effecting a staggering multitude of other diseases and disorders including cataracts, cardiovascular disease as well as cancer of the breast, colon, ovarian, gastric, lung, and bladder while helping to reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease and stroke. You can see that the onion is mighty, in deed!

The richest dietary source of quercitin, onion holds a powerful antioxidant flavonoid that has been shown to thin the blood, lower cholesterol, ward off blood clots, and fight asthma, chronic bronchitis, hay fever, diabetes, atherosclerosis and infections. Onions antioxidants and amino acids allow your body to function optimally, help prevent damage and are used in virtually every vital function in the body. Oh that’s all? No, there’s more.

“Onions are excellent at killing cancer cells.” Published recently in Food Research International, “Onions activate pathways that encourage cancer cells to undergo cell death. They promote an unfavorable environment for cancer cells and inhibit growth by disrupting communication between cancer cells.”

“Altering dietary habits may be a practical and cost-effective means of reducing cancer risk and modifying tumor behavior. Approximately 30–40% of cancers are preventable by appropriate food and nutrition, physical activity, and maintenance of healthy body weight.” Said in the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health research article: ‘Garlic and onions: Their cancer prevention properties’ published in 2015. Summarizing that, “Mechanistic studies provide compelling evidence that garlic, onions, and their (stinky) sulfur components alter the biological behavior of tumors, tumor microenvironments, or precancerous cells, and decrease cancer risk.”

Do you smell breakthrough? Onions pungent smelling sulfur compounds are actually a powerful detox element which help the body to release toxins, especially from the liver. Foods naturally high in sulfur also help the body detox itself of heavy metals and other dangerous toxins. Damage to DNA caused by environmental toxins is thought to be the cause of most cancer. Eating organic, local sustainable food never sounded better!

“Organic conditions boost flavonoids and antioxidant activity in onions” said the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in a study published on June 14, 2017. They went on to say, “organic foods contain more health-benefiting phytochemicals.” Now, researchers have found that flavonoid levels and antioxidant activity in organic onions are higher than in conventional onions. Their investigation, in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, is the longest-running study to address the issue.

An organic onion a day? A study conducted at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that eating a teaspoon of fresh garlic and a half cup of onions per day increases the levels of a key enzyme for removing toxins in the blood cells. As told by FOX News, “eating onions can get your blood sugar-and your weight-on the right track. So here is a simple, powerful health-enhancing recommendation: Eat an onion every day. One medium-sized onion equals approximately one cup of onion when chopped.”

In addition, other factors including the gut microbiome, may also influence responses, giving last weeks blog post about gut-boosting Okra something more to think about.

You see, organic onions are an essential ingredient, to the flavor of wellness through-out our life.  The taste of a good life, absent from disease is the most savored quality offered up in the onion. So next time you start to cry over an onion, let them be tears of joy! Breakthrough is yours.

“It’s hard to imagine civilization without onions.”
— Julia Child

Acorn Squash with Onions and Yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1 acorn squash, halved, seeded and cut into 8 wedges
• 1 medium onion, cut into 8 wedges
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• ½ cup Aris plain sheep’s milk yogurt
• 2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ¼ cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 375. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss squash and onion with oil; season with salt and pepper. Roast until squash is tender, 30-35 minutes.
   
2. In a small bowl, combine yogurt and lemon juice. Transfer squash and onion to a serving plate. Top with yogurt and mint.
   
3. Serve with a refreshing glass of mint green tea or lemon water..

Give thanks… and enjoy!

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Onion Preparation & Storage TIPS:

Preparation:

Onions are healthy raw & cooked, though raw onions have higher levels of organic sulfur compounds that provide many benefits, according to the BBC. A 2005 study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that there is a high concentration of flavonoids in the outer layers of onion flesh, so you’ll want to be careful to remove as little of the edible part of the onion as possible when peeling it. Never microwave your antioxidant-rich foods since the process decreases the antioxidant content by more than 75% in just one minute.

Storage:

Best not to leave an onion cut open in the fridge because it will absorb bacteria. Either use the whole onion, or buy a variety of small, medium and large onions to have on hand; and use accordingly.  Sage Mountain Farm CSA box shares typically include a variety of sizes in a season, seeing to it that in my kitchen, an onion never goes to waste. However, once an onion is in a salad in a sealed container, it is safe and can be eaten at a later time.

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Thank you for visiting Sage Mountain Farm BLOG!
Subscribe & follow. Posts weekly. Stay connected.
Comments, suggestions and questions?
Contact me directly: amy@sagemountainfarm.com
Visit www.sagemountainfarm.com for more information about our farm.

Together, let’s get healthy!

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To be engaged in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), offers you a chance to share in a sustainable small farm’s hand picked, certified organic seasonal daily harvest.  There truly is a difference in taste, quality and variety! 

Let’s make small farms in our region stronger and profitable, for theirs is a labor of love. Support your local small farm and become a CSA member today!