It’s October and pumpkins and squashes are everywhere, so pumpkin & family recipes are on the menu, too. (When did pumpkins go from cool things to carve to “the” thing you must display and cook with all fall/winter long? They do make a good meal though.) The display at our wholesome organic megalopolis included dozens of varieties I wasn’t familiar with, including a “red kuri” squash and the “sweet dumpling” squash that I picked up. (In case you are wondering what these varieties are, Epicurious and Real Simple  have good guides).

This recipe started with a “Roasted Butternut Squash Pie” recipe on Epicurious. It featured filo, which I didn’t feel like dealing with, so I changed it to a blue cornmeal-almond meal crust.  I also added in Kale and pumpkin seeds.

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 Cup blue cornmeal
• 1 Cup almond meal
• 1/8 cup of olive oil
• a pinch of salt
• 1-2 Tbs water as needed

Filling

• 1 sweet dumpling squash
• 1 Cup spinach (I used a “power grains” Kale/spinach blend…they said the magic word when they said it was “triple washed,” which keeps me from having to repeatedly wash fresh kale/spinach)
• 1 red onion
• 3 stalks of scallions
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 T ginger paste
• 1 T garlic minced or garlic paste
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup walnut pieces
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t allspice

The method:

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Cut squash in half and remove seeds.
3. Wrap the squash in foil and and bake until soft.
4. Chop onion and scallions and sautee them with the garlic and ginger paste.
5. Chop spinach into ribbons and add to the onion mixture. Chop bell pepper into small pieces and add it in to the onion mixture.
6. When squash is soft, scoop out the flesh and add to the onion/spinach mixture. Cook for a few minutes. Reduce oven to 350.
7. Add in cilantro, cinnamon, and allspice. Set aside
8. In a mixing bowl, combine the almond meal and cornmeal. Add olive oil and mix. Add water and mix by hand until it forms into a dough ball.
9. Roll out the dough between pieces of parchment (you should have enough for a top and bottom. complete coverage on top is not necessary–if it ends up being cobbler-style patches, that’s fine.
10. Line a baking pan with parchment and put in the bottom crust layer. Add pumpkin mixture on top. Sprinkle walnuts on top.
    
11. Top with a top crust.
12. Bake at 350 until crust is golden.