Stuffed butternut squash with turkey, zucchini, spinach, and mushrooms. This hearty and delicious meal is whole30, paleo and AIP.
After last week’s cookie fest, I figured I had better give you all a savory meal recipe lest our blood sugar spiral out of control and we form an addiction to almond flour and pure maple syrup.
Not that you shouldn’t make and enjoy the Chocolate-Dipped Molasses Cookies, Vegan Snickerdoodles, and Paleo Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies I posted last week (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), but I always encourage consuming treats sparingly, especially if they’re healthier.
We tend to overdo it on a good thing and before we know it, we’ve consumed 12 of something “healthy” which equates to more fat and sugar than we really need in one sitting, you know what I’m saying?
On to the main topic of conversation here: these turkey-stuffed butternut squasheseses. SO GOOD!
Preparing this recipe is an actual joke.
It’s just so simple!
We cook up some veggies, toss in some ground turkey (my favorite brand of ground turkey is Diestel Family Turkey Ranch, which you can get from Whole Foods, a natural food store, or online), and badda bing, badda boom, we have ourselves some epic stuffing for filling any and all of our favorite winter squash.
Simply roast a butternut squash or three in the oven, stuff them with this tasty filling, and you have yourself a complete meal that has a pretty epic macro profile, with a great amount of protein, fiber, and carbohydrates.
Whether or not you’re a biohacker and you pay attention to your macronutrients, this is a fabulously nutritious recipe.
It covers all the clean eating, easy to prepare, super palatable bases.
Feel free to double or triple the stuffing mixture if you’re serving more people.
Make these stuffed squatternut boshes because they’re everything!
If you love butternut squash, also check out my Ground Turkey Butternut Squash Skillet with Rainbow Chard and my Butternut Squash Ginger Chicken Stir Fry.
If you make this stuffed butternut squash recipe, feel free to snap a photo and tag me on Instagram at @The.Roasted.Root!
Turkey-Stuffed Butternut Squash
Ingredients
- 1 to 2 butternut squash roasted, see note
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil or coconut oil
- 1/2 small yellow onion finely chopped
- 1/2 apple peeled, cored, and chopped
- 2 cups mushrooms chopped
- 1/2 pound ground turkey
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium zucchini squash chopped
- 4 cup baby spinach
- 1.5 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger optional
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Chop the tip and tail off the butternut squash and scoop out the seeds and innards. Drizzle the flesh with avocado oil (or oil of choice) and sprinkle with sea salt. Place butternut squash cut-side down on a large baking sheet. Roast for 45 to 60 minutes (depending on the size of the butternut squash), until flesh is soft when poked with a fork.
- While the squash is roasting, prepare the turkey filling. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high and add the onion and apple. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion begins to turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue cooking another 3 minutes.
- Move the vegetables to one side of the skillet and add the ground turkey in the open space. Allow it to brown 1-2 minutes on one side, then flip and brown for 1-2 minutes on the other side. Stir the ground turkey in with the vegetables.
- Add the remaining ingredients and stir to incorporate. Cover and cook 5 minutes, or until the turkey is cooked through and the zucchini has softened.
- Stuff the butternut squash halves with desired amount of turkey filling. Sprinkle with sea salt to taste and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
This was good. I didn’t have an apple, so I added a little handful of Craisins and a bit of feta when I filled my squash. And I skipped the mushrooms as my husband has IBS issues with mushrooms. I think I will add kalamara olives in place of mushrooms next time. Silly question: After roasting the squash, do I scoop the squash flesh out to make a “boat”, add the squash to the veggie/ turkey mix in the skillet and then stuff the boat? That part of the directions wasn’t quite clear to me. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this. Something different and easy to make. 🙂
Hi Katie! Thanks so much for sharing this! I love the idea of adding olives in place of the mushrooms. I typically scoop out a little of the butternut squash flesh and just eat it 🙂 You can definitely mix it in with the turkey mixture if you’re alright with some creamy texture! xoxo
This was delicious! I eliminated the mushrooms and substituted red onion for the yellow, and put it in the oven after stuffing it and with some shredded Mexican cheese on top for 5 minutes until the cheese melted. So good!
Ooh, all of that sounds great! Thanks for sharing, Brooke! xo
This looks amazing I do however have a question in the recipe there is garlic and zucchini but in the directions it doesn’t say when to add them.
Hi Amy! The garlic and zucchini are added in step 4 with the remaining ingredients (spinach, oregano, ground ginger, and sea salt). Let me know if you have any other questions! I hope you enjoy the recipe! xo
so good! I added some red pepper flakes and a few other vegetables – carrots or peppers – but its a new one in rotation – thank you!
Yuuuum! So happy you like it, Rebecca! xoxo
Yum! Great flavor combination
Made it tonight and hubby says it is a keeper! Just one concern, the picture suggests there is spinach in it, but the recipe does not!
Aaagh you caught something very important! I can’t believe I (and no one else, lol) didn’t realize that sooner! Thanks for pointing it out – I just added it to the recipe. xoxo
This looks amazing. I will definitely make this.
Thrilled to hear it, Donna! Let me know how you like it!
This meal was easy to follow and very tasty! My husband loved it! I made it 2 weeks ago and then again tonight. It’s a new Fall Favorite!
looks really mouth watering. i will give it a try.
I love the thought of turkey stuffing in butternut squash. Look absolutely amazing, Julia!
I love stuffed squash, and this recipe looks great!
I LOOOOOVE stuffed squash, and these ones look so vibrant and delicious! Who couldn’t use a stuffed squatternut bosh this time of year??