STUFFED BUTTERNUT SQUASH with Apple Sausage Filling!

One of my favorite seasonal recipes is stuffed butternut squash and this version with Italian sausage, apple, spinach, dried cranberries, pecans, and fresh herbs has been a reader favorite on the website for several years. I just never had a video for it but today I will walk you through how to make it step by step because the combination of soft and creamy butternut squash and hearty and savory filling makes for one beautifully plated and deliciously good meal. Not only will your family love it but I have made this for several friends giving dinners over the years as well and I am always asked for the recipe. So let me show you how to make it. To get started you'll need a butternut squash that's about two and a half pounds. Now butternut squash and most winter squashes for that matter are notoriously difficult to slice given their hard outside edge. It can certainly be done with a little care and extra muscle and I've shown you this before on my roasted butternut squash video but if you like to make things easier as I do then I recommend poking it a few times with a fork and then microwaving it for two to three minutes to soften it a bit. It won't cook the butternut squash but it will make it much easier to slice in half and I think that's just safer all around. So once you've got it sliced in half use a large spoon to scoop out the seeds. You can roast butternut squash seeds as you would pumpkin seeds and I've got a separate recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds on my website if you need step-by-step directions but today I'll just scoop the seeds out and then toss them. Place the butternut squash in a baking dish and then drizzle it with a little bit of olive oil. Rub that all over to coat the flesh and then sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Flip the halves over so that they're face down and this helps the cut edge get all nice and caramelized in the oven. Then transfer the butternut squash to a 400 degree fahrenheit oven and roast for 40 to 45 minutes. Now while that's cooking you can prepare the filling and that starts with dicing up half of an onion. The great thing about this recipe is how customizable the filling is so feel free to swap in leeks or shallots as well. Next you'll slice and dice one apple and if you have an apple core you can use that to core the apple first. I do not have a core so I'll usually just slice around the core and then dice the remaining pieces. The herbs in this recipe really highlight those fall vibes and you'll need one tablespoon of freshly chopped sage and half a tablespoon of freshly chopped rosemary. I do prefer fresh herbs in this recipe as fresh is usually best for a quick stir fry but if you only have dried herbs you could swap those in at about one third the amount. So about one teaspoon of dried sage and half a teaspoon of dried rosemary and you can put the chopped herbs in the same small prep bowl as they'll get added on the stove at the same time. In terms of the sausage for this recipe I'm using sweet Italian pork sausage though you could use spicy as well and even chicken sausage it's totally up to you. Sausage links like these are usually about a quarter pound each and you'll need a half a pound of sausage for this recipe so that's two links. Then just use kitchen shears or a knife to remove the meat from the outer casing. Add the sausage to a large pan over medium heat and use a spatula to break up the meat while it cooks. Cook the sausage until it's nice and browned and then add the diced onion, three cloves of garlic that you can mince straight into the pan, and two lightly packed cups of baby spinach. Once that's all in there give it a stir for two to three minutes or until the spinach has begun to wilt. Then add the diced apples along with the chopped sage and rosemary and stir that for another two to three minutes. You'll know it's done when the apples have softened slightly and the whole dish just smells so darn good from all of those aromatics. At this point turn off the heat and then add one third cup of dried cranberries and I always use unsweetened and a quarter cup of roughly chopped pecans. This just enhances the sweetness and crunch of the filling and once that's all stirred together go ahead and remove it from the heat. Your butternut squash should be just about done at this point so once it is remove it from the oven and then use tongs to flip it over and look at that perfectly caramelized edge. Now I should probably wait a few minutes to let the steaming subside just a bit so as to not burn my fingers when I scrape out some of the inside but there's what I should do and then what I actually do. So if yours is still steaming as well just be a bit careful and use a large spoon to scrape out some of the flesh. You want to leave about a half inch or so around the edge so that dinner guests can enjoy some of the butternut squash with the filling but you also want to scrape out enough to really pile in that filling well and with the filling you scrape out you can turn that into mashed butternut squash just like mashed potatoes or simply top it with a pat of butter and enjoy it as a side dish. Scoop the filling into each half of the butternut squash and then place it back in the oven and turn the broiler on for just a couple of minutes until the top is lightly golden and that my friends is how easy it is to make this apple sausage stuffed butternut squash. Now as a little pro tip if you do want to serve this up for a friend's giving and double or triple the recipe you can always make the filling a day in advance then simply fill the squash and bake the next day. This recipe is always a hit because it's the perfect balance of sweet and savory and I am excited to take my bite. I really love that this is the perfect all-in-one meal not only all-in-one in terms of being a stuffed butternut squash but in terms of a balance of nutrition with some great starchy carbs some filling protein and healthy fats. There is so much flavor in that I love how every bite just is like an abundance of different flavors from the Italian sausage and the apples are really soft and sweet you get a little bit of the sweetness from the dried cranberries the herbs the fresh herbs the sage and rosemary. It's so simple and it really is highlighting the best of like the bounty of natural healthy delicious flavors for fall. Now something else I love about butternut squash and winter squashes in general is that they last for a long time in your pantry they will last for several months so if you happen to see them at the market on sale you can grab a couple to whip up this recipe either during fall or winter or even in spring and if you haven't yet made a couple of other butternut squash recipes don't forget about my butternut squash soup my butternut squash frittata which is a great way to get this veggie into a delicious breakfast in addition to my butternut squash shakshuka which is my take on a traditional shakshuka that turns it from red to orange and I have a green shakshuka as well so lots of delicious ideas for fall. You can find all of those delicious recipes and more on my website downshiftology.com and we are in full swing in fall and winter recipes now so stay tuned because I've got a lot more very tasty recipes coming your way in the next couple of weeks. I hope you guys enjoyed today's video and if you did make sure to give it a thumbs up and with that I will see you in the next video.