Lebanese-Style Stuffed Yellow Squash

Every now and then I’ll find a recipe that just absolutely “wows” the main ingredient. Such is the recipe, “Mrs. Elias’ Stuffed Yellow Squash.” Yellow squash is plentiful in the summertime; I’ve been looking at it in the grocery stores for a while now. It’s a good vegetable to include in meals while in season.

There are so many creative ways to cook yellow squash–beyond boiled. A local Lebanese diner serves stuffed baby yellow squash on their cafeteria-style menu every day. I’ve always been curious about how the squash dish was made. I found a similar recipe in a saved newspaper clipping and tried it; the recipe was delicious–one of the best I’ve made in a while.

I’m one of those cooks who cuts and saves recipes. I especially like our local newspaper, the Advocate, and the Thursday food section. I’ve got stacks of saved recipes. I saved this page because it tells about my 85 year-old Italian neighbor and his life-long service in the wholesale food and beverage business. It is from August 2012. While shuffling through old newspaper clippings, I turned the page over and found a recipe for one similar to the squash on the Lebanese diner menu. I was excited to try it; a new way to use the yellow squash in the grocery markets.

The combination of spices–cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg–added to the ground beef and sausage made me a little skeptical. But that is what this recipe was all about. And it worked. The spices complemented the squash without overwhelming the other ingredients.

Mrs. Elias’ Stuffed Yellow Squash – Melting Pot

Great recipes are often passed along. This one originated in New Orleans. Mrs. Elias, of Lebanese descent, in the 1960’s (and now we can say “years ago”) cooked Lebanese dishes for her son and neighbors while they were in graduate school. The native New Orleans’ residents had never tasted these spices or dishes. They liked them and passed some of them along. This one reached the Baton Rouge Advocate food writer, Corinne Cook, who wrote a story about the recipe’s origination. (“Fond Memories Come with Squash”, Corinne Cook, The Advocate, August 16, 2012.) The recipe was published in the food section of the paper. I tried it; loved it and received permission to reprint the recipe on my blog. Perhaps you will like the recipe, too. We become a melting pot of flavors and dishes.

Does yellow squash grow in Louisiana?

Yes, yellow squash grows in Louisiana, but I’ve not had much success growing squash. The plants I started this spring grew to large beautiful ones with lots of blossoms. I’d get squash, but they never matured. Guess I’ll have to figure it out. Fortunately, there is an abundant supply in grocery stores in the summer.

Lebanese-Style Stuffed Yellow Squash Recipe Notes

In the recipe, this squash is stuffed with beef, sausage and dry rice. The spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger give the squash a middle eastern flavor. I followed the original recipe as written except that I baked rather than boiled the squash. The original recipe shows that the squash is boiled on the stove in the tomato sauce. I baked the dish in the oven so I could just “let it cook” and not have to check the stove so often..

Dry rice is added to the meat as a binder and to absorb the juices from the beef and sausage. I frequently end up with dry crunchy rice. I added a little tomato sauce to the meat to help give more moisture so the rice would be puffy.

I’ve made this recipe several times. A variation is to replace one of the cans of tomato sauce with a can of diced tomatoes (using tomatoes and juice). I added a few seasonings–(a tsp each of basil, thyme, sugar and a dash of black pepper and dried crushed red pepper flakes)–to the tomato sauce “gravy” to give it a some flavor. In Mrs. Elias’ recipe a dish is placed on the squash and pressed down so the meat flavors the tomato gravy.

To stuff the squash, it must be hollowed out. I thought this might be a challenge, but it turned out to be easy. The instructions say to use an apple corer or potato peeler. The apple corer worked well. (Save the squash pulp.)

I used a paring knife to hollow the squash out further.

The squash are stuffed; the top is place back onto each squash. Since I was baking the squash, I placed the squash in a casserole dish and added the reserved squash pulp around the squash. Otherwise, place the stuffed squash and squash pulp in a heavy dutch oven.

Add onions and bell pepper.

Ladle on tomato sauce, cover tightly with foil and bake for an hour at 350 degrees. Alternately, add all ingredients to the dutch oven, weight down with a plate, cover and boil on the stove for 30-40 minutes until the squash are tender.

Here’s my finished squash recipe. Delicious!

Recipe

Perhaps you will try and like this recipe, too!