At the farmers’ market a couple of weeks ago, I picked up two butternut squash that were each about the length of my hand. Since I love roasting butternut with a touch of lemon, I was considering cooking them in that tried and true (but unimaginative) manner when I got the idea to roast one of the squash and mix it in with my favorite grain/seed, quinoa. The results were a light and lemony side dish that goes with practically anything.
I served it with baked tofu, gravy, steamed broccoli, and a salad for a sort of traditional American meal, but the lemony flavor makes a great accompaniment to everything from Thai food to Italian. I’m considering making it a part of my Thanksgiving dinner this year.
Lemony Quinoa with Butternut Squash
The pine nuts really complement the lemon flavor, but if you decide to leave them out, you can deduct about 30 calories and 3 grams of fat per serving.
Ingredients
- 10 ounces butternut squash (about 2 cups)
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1/4 cup chopped shallots
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
- salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons (about 7/10 ounce) lightly toasted pine nuts (optional)
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh chives (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Cut the squash in half and scrape out the seeds and strings (using a grapefruit spoon makes this easier). Peel and cut into 1/2-inch cubes and toss with the 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Place them on a non-stick baking sheet (or silicone mat), sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, and bake for 15 minutes, stirring halfway through.
- Place the quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer and rinse it well and allow to drain. Heat a deep, non-stick pot. Add shallots and garlic and cook, stirring, until shallots soften slightly. Add the quinoa and toast it until it has dried out and begins to exude a toasty aroma. Add the squash along with the thyme and vegetable broth. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Cook, stirring once or twice, until all broth is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Stir in the lemon peel and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and add more lemon juice if needed.
- Serve with toasted pine nuts and chives sprinkled on top.
Notes
Servings: 4 large side-dish servings
Preparation time: 15 minute(s) | Cooking time: 40 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 240 calories, 50 calories from fat, 5.7g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 291.8mg sodium, 576mg potassium, 41.2g carbohydrates, 5.2g fiber, 1.7g sugar, 8.4g protein, 4.5 points.
Though MyPoints are calculated using a formula similar to Weight Watchers Points TM, this site has no affiliation with Weight Watchers and does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Other Recipes You May Enjoy:
Quinoa and Vegetable Paella
Butternut Squash - Peanut Mole
Pink Bean, Quinoa, and Spinach Soup
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{ 71 comments… read them below or add one }
I will be trying this one very soon! I have 16 pounds of a variety of squash on my counter right now that I've been on the hunt for new ways to prepare. I'm with you on the lemon, so I can already tell that I'll love this one. I'll report back soon
Love the sound of this! Just saved it in my "to-try" folder!
So fresh and gorgeous, that picture just makes me so hungry! I love all the bright amazing flavors in here, this would be such a wonderful dinner.
mmm. lemon and butternut squash are not often combined, but i have a feeling you're onto something!
This looks amazing!!! I am definitely going to try this soon. Keep the quinoa recipes comin'!
this looks amazing! love the flavor combos.
I am terribly allergic to pine nuts (but no other nuts.) I've never eaten them because of my allergy (except in pesto, which is how I found out), so I'm not sure how they taste. When I make pesto I substitute either almonds or walnuts. Do you think one of those would also work in this recipe, or is there another type of nut you would recommend? Thanks!
Shannon, I'm sorry about your pine nut allergy. They have a really unique taste, a touch piney, but are more delicious than that sounds. I think that any other nut would be fine here (they all go well with lemon, right?) I would probably use sliced or slivered almonds, but I'll bet walnuts or cashews would be interesting too.
Lovely dish. It would make a nice Thanksgiving side dish.
I am going to make this tonight! I love the idea of combining the quinoa with butternut squash and lemon. Superb.
Oh, this will make for a nice change from the usual way I prepare quinoa! It sounds delicious!
Thank you for this recipe! I think I have almost all of these ingredients in my kitchen right now. Perhaps I'll try out the recipe this weekend.
Just made this tonight. So good! Thanks for the recipe.
Oooh yummy. I was trying to think of what to do with all my butternut squash besides soup, and this blog post recipe popped up in my email. Serendipity!
BTW, we had your caribbean beans and quinoa for supper last night, and, as always, it was a hit!
This looks DELISH! Right up my alley!
Susan,
This sounds fabulous. I'd really like to try it. The challenge for me with my hand issues is peeling the squash. . .but I will see what I can do about that. Hopefully there will be a day that will work. I think this would be an amazing side dish for Thanksgiving, and I love the idea of cooking squash with lemon.
Thanks!
moonwatcher
This sounds delicious! This is my first time commenting, but I have been coming to your site for a couple months now and I have to say THANK YOU for all these great recipes. It has really helped me change to a vegetarian diet (mostly vegan, but I do have honey in tea.) My husband is not (nor will he ever be) a vegetarian and I don't totally make my girls be vegetarian/vegan, but since I am the one that cooks… when eating at home, we all eat vegetarian/vegan dishes. And other than my 5 y.o. daughter not liking tempeh, they have been enjoying it and not complaining. I think having great recipes like you give us has really helped to make this transition enjoyable for them as well. Thanks so much!! Can't wait to try this one, just got butternut squash the other day and was looking for something different to use it for.
Very yummy even without the pine nuts.
ooooh I love your blog!! Great post, too- I love the idea of the lemony quinoa, which is definitely one of my faves too. I cannot wait to try this!
Sounds and looks delicious, I'll try this soon, it will be perfect for my diet with no fat, easy to prepare. Squash and lemon, Hmmm, delicious and nutritious.
Susan – again a wonderful recipe. I just tried this (sans pine nuts, not in a college studnet budget) last night and now I can't wait to make it for Thanksgiving. Thanks so much for another good quinoa recipe.
I made this tonight with almonds. It was just fabulous!!!
That sounds good! Im on the lookout for Thanksgiving recipes. I'll give it a try!
Hi , First time here . Must appreciate the lovely recipes…. I just love the cactus shaped bread – truly amazing !!!!!
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Hi! Thanks for this I will try this today.
Yummy Yummy dish. On the list for Thanksgiving. Thank you!
This looks delicious ! I just came back from the Paris organic market with a huge butternut squash so this will be perfect, merci beaucoup! (and great timing !)
If you have any other good butternut recipes, would be very welcome too…
Love your recipes/blog, keep it up!
Lafleurdeparis.blogspot.com
What a great blog!
Everything looks delish!! Best, Paula
This looks like a delicious dish, I'm craving pine nuts now!
I just made this and *loved* it. Things I changed: I added minced garlic to the squash while it roasted, and topped it with both scallion and parmesan (nutritional yeast would also be yummy).
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. It is absolutely amazing!
This looks awesome! I am experimenting with quinoa and this will help. You might like this blog I wrote about Fair Trade Certified Bolivian quinoa: http://bit.ly/hT98m. Cheers! Rachel Lee Holstein
Looks great! I will definitely consider this when assembling gluten-free thanksgiving.
A note to moonwatcher: if your squash is organic (ie, not waxed) the skin is totally edible. it has a little chewier texture, but it's quite nutritious. Otherwise you can microwave the squash for a few minutes to soften it and make it easier to peel.
This recipe was amazing! My son loves quinoa, so it's nice to have new recipes to try. Thanks for posting it
I've been cooking and eating vegan since August, and I have really opened so many more doors than I've closed. I can't imagine I would have ever sought out a recipe like this before, and even when I read it the first time I thought "Really? That sounds kind of gross." But, my curiosity got the best of me. I bought a squash and tried it out, and much to my delight, it turned out delicious. Thanks for the recipe; I'll be back for sure:)
Oh my gosh this looks amazing! I need to use my butternut squash too!
yum, that looks delicious!
Your pictures are all so gorgeous. I love them!
I was wondering if you serve this cold, as more of a salad? I was thinking of bringing it to-go on a flight, do you think it will hold up ? I know quinoa salads are great for travel, but will roasted butternut squash still be good hours later ? Thanks !
R, from Paris
I am definitely going to buy some quinoa today. This looks delicious!
I'm going to make this for my daughter who is vegetarian but I have discovered that eating this way is just as delicious or more so than eating traditional "meat & potatoes". In fact, I've observed that I actually feel so much better when I eat the way my daughter eats.
Hi Susan. This looks wonderful. Before I make it though, is the 1 cup of quinoa dry or cooked? Thanks!
Erin, the quinoa is uncooked when you measure it. I hope you enjoy the recipe!
I'm a non-cook who has been a vegan for about a year and a half. I made this with my leftover squash, and it was so tasty. I also made your green bean casserole this weekend. I think you're a genius. Thanks for teaching me how to cook.
This is going straight to my recipe book
It looks delicious!! Now the tricky part will be to find quinoa in a supermarket here in Spain… but I relish a challenge 
I´ll keep checking your blog, you are a fab cook.
Greetings from Paradise aka the Canary Islands.
I just made the recipe and it was very yummy. However, after 20 minutes most of the liquid had not yet been absorbed. Curious why you call for 2.5 cups of liquid when the recipe on the back of the Eden quinoa bag suggests 1 1/4 cups per 1 cup quinoa. Any suggestions for what I did wrong?
Thanks!
Hi Liz–I used a little extra broth in order to keep the squash hydrated while the quinoa is cooking. When I made it, the squash absorbed some of the water, but I guess yours needed less. I may also have had mine at a higher temperature (my stove runs hot) and more may have evaporated in 20 minutes. I hope the dish was worth any added time you had to spend on it!
Hi Susan: I'm going to make it again today with a little less broth. The great news is that my 11-year old really liked it! The flavors are amazing — I really love the lemon zest and the thyme coupled with the squash. BTW, your recipe was recommended to me by one of my Facebook Fans!
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I made this tonight and it was my first attempt every with quiona. Can't say it went perfectly. :<
I love the other ingredients separately, so I'll have to do some experimenting with the quiona to see where I'm messing it up.
Thanks for all of the wonderful recipes.
Made it last night for friends from New Orleans. It is delicious and a big hit.
What a great recipe!! We just made it for Christmas Dinner. Lots of taste and easy to make!
Thanks, it's a keeper!
This looks fantastic! I recently made a butternut squash risotto that I can't get enough of, and quinoa sounds even better. The pine nuts also sound like a perfect complement to the quinoa…I'm going to have to go back to the store for more squash!
Loved it, and looks fabulous
Tried this last night…TERRIFIC!!! It was easy to put together and the lemon really set it off! My husband ate it and liked it…(he couldn't care less about healthy eating) Thanks for your blog!
This is my first time using butternut squash. I absolutely loved this recipe.
I loved the lemon flavor and the toasted pine nuts were a great addition to the overall dish.
This will be a common meal from now on. One of my favorites. The only thing I did differently was to steam some broccoli and mixed it in.
Thanks, Susan!
This looks delicious! I love quinoa and will certainly add this to my must-make list. Thanks!
Granted the feta isn’t vegan…but you could skip it and this would still be very yummy! Perhaps replace it with olives or tofu.
Quinoa with Feta, Tomatoes, and Basil, tossed with a lemon vinaigrette http://wp.me/puWta-4X
Thanks for this lovely recipe. I loved the (really really) lemony taste!
I cooked it this evening but only took a mobile cam pic because I had to devour it immediately. This was soooo good!
http://torwen.blogspot.com/2010/08/quinoa.html
Wow! This recipe was SO delicious, and simple too! I didn’t have a fresh lemon, so no lemon peel, but I added a little lemon pepper with the lemon juice, and that seemed to do the trick. I’m not a vegan, but I will be coming back to your site to try other tasty recipes! Thank you!
Oh, this was MOST Delicious! I used red quinoa- which made the dish even more colorful, and waited to add squash until quinoa was cooked. This was easily the BEST quinoa dish EVER! Thank you so much for this recipe and for many other you so generously share here!
I made this for My Love and I tonight for dinner. I didn’t add the pine nuts but I don’t think it lacked in taste for it. We absolutely loved this recipe and we intend to have it many times..and in the summer we thought having it cold as part of a picnic might be nice.
This recipe is amazing! The lemony quinoa is fantastic—I love it really, really lemony. Also before I was always making butternut, acorn, etc. by cutting it in half and baking it. It turns out much less flavorful that way. The method of cubing it and squeezing pepper and lemon over it makes it outstanding!
Thanks so much for all of these awesome recipes.
I made this last week. It was easy, and it was a home run. My wife (who tolerates my vegan eating and is normally less than enthusiastic about these sorts of dishes) thought it was one of the best we’ve ever had. Note: We served it with tamari-baked tofu and mushroom gravy. This made quite a robust meal. Highly recommended.
I made this today and it’s absolutely delicious. I added some fresh basil (b/c the plant sits on my counter), but didn’t have pine nuts on hand. The flavors balance perfectly and this will definitely be a go-to recipe when I have squash in the kitchen. Thank you!
This recipe is delicious. I’ve made it twice now, first time, following your recipe exactly. This time, I upped the thyme to 1.5 tsp and added a few shakes of Mrs. Dash at the same time. I also didn’t have any fresh lemon on hand, so I used lemon juice, but added zest of orange instead. Oh, and I just realized that I only used 2 cups broth this time instead of 2.5 and it still turned out amazing.
Just made this for Thanksgiving. It didn’t work for me. I think it’s the lemon – the whole thing just tastes sour. Oh well.
This looks great. I am having a couple friends over for dinner tomorrow night and I think I will make this. What else could I make that would go well with this? Thanks!
I mistakenly bought butternut squash instead of spaghetti squash for another recipe. So I made this instead in a simplified version (things must be super easy for me to attempt them) of whatever I had in the house … onions instead of shallots, whole baked squash, pre-made quinoa, and just the garlic, lemon, thyme, and a little salt & pepper.
It’s yum! I never would have thought of adding garlic and/or thyme to squash, plus the lemon. So good! And healthy. Thank you Susan!
Just ate this for lunch – so delicious light and filling. Great recipe!
Fabulous recipe! Just made it tonight. Love the lemony flavor…but it isn’t overpowering at all. We visited a local farm last week and purchased MANY different kinds of squashes, gourds and pumpkins. So glad I found this recipe.
I made this last night with some baked tofu and it was really delicious. As you mentioned, it would work well as a Thanksgiving side as well.
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