Comfort Food: Dune Bird Winter Squash Recipe

The Northern Express shared this recipe from Dune Bird’s Katherine Elisabeth Palms in their Comfort Food feature:

Palms, who is also the director of the Leelanau Wellness Collective, tells us she adapted it from the BBC’s GoodFood, and we adapted it further the second time we made it, adding cooked brown rice and lentils at the end to throw off a picky kid eater who refuses meat and accuses cooked quinoa of having “tails.” (Just imagine if we told her how much of Mom’s red wine was in it.)

Ingredients

2 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon paprika
2 medium sweet potatoes, cubed
1 red pepper, chopped
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and chopped (about a pound)
1 can diced tomato
¾ cup (6 ounces) Dune Bird dry red wine (AV8* recommended)
1¼ cup vegetable stock
1/3 cup quinoa or whole-wheat couscous

To Serve

Dollops of Greek or vegan yogurt
Grated cheddar cheese or nutritional yeast

Instructions

Heat olive oil in large sauté or saucepan with a lid. Cook onion for 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic, cumin seeds and paprika, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes more. Stir in the chopped sweet potato, red pepper, and squash; toss with the onion and spices.

Pour in the tomatoes, vegetable stock, wine. Season, then simmer gently for 15 minutes. Stir in the quinoa, cover with a lid, then simmer for 15 mins more until the vegetables are tender, the quinoa is cooked (you’ll know when the quinoa is done because it will look like it has popped open, revealing the germ of the kernel) and the liquid has been absorbed.

Serve in bowls topped with a spoonful of choice yogurt and some grated cheddar or nutritional yeast.

For a pairing, Owner Nicole White suggests Dunebird’s AV8, a full-bodied red blend she calls “dynamic and elegant” for its “very earthy nose and these ethereal notes of raspberries and vanilla,” which we found to be a perfect accompaniment to both the recipe and our-post dinner chill time.