Butternut Squash Quinoa + The Glories of a Well-Stocked Pantry

One of the biggest challenges for a 20-something is what to do on those days when your fridge is bare and your will is weak. Seamless beckons, just a few clicks away from dispatching a meat-and-veggie-laden pizza or a gigantic box of General Tso’s (with an egg roll! For $8!) to my door. But the underlying guilt of I should eat healthy or I’m too broke or I just had delivery two days ago jk that would never happen eventually leads to an open-mouthed stare in front of open cabinets, part of a desperate search to find something–anything!–to eat. I cannot be the only person who has this problem. But, my friends, I’ve found the solution: a well-stocked pantry.

Always having a few staples on hand is the busy cook’s best friend. Depending on your tastes, these staples might change, but a few basics:

– canned beans: I always have black beans and chickpeas (I know, technically a legume), but anything will do — pinto, kidney, white, etc.

– pasta: at least one long, thin spaghetti-like pasta and one short pasta (ie. penne, ziti, rotini, etc.) + 1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes*

– grains: I have a million–rice (brown, white and wild), quinoa, farro, oats, barley … you prob only need 1 or 2 of your favorites

– oil and vinegar: olive oil + a neutral-flavored one, basic red and white vinegar, balsamic and maybe apple cider vinegar

*If you’ve got crushed tomatoes, olive oil and spices, you can make an easy tomato sauce in 15 minutes. Bonus points if you have a yellow onion and garlic.

– spices: whatever your favorites are — cumin, coriander, paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, dried rosemary, dried thyme, crushed red pepper, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, allspice — literally whatever you like

Those are just the basics, but I like to keep frozen vegetables (corn, edamame, spinach, broccoli, etc.) on hand to bulk out grain salads. I also usually have a few onions and a bulb of garlic, since they can be used in everything and don’t spoil quickly. And I always have a carton of eggs in the fridge, since they don’t go bad for weeks (and truth be told, they’re usually gone by then).

If you have some or all of those things, you can easily throw something together in the time that it takes you to choose, order and wait for delivery. Earlier this week, faced with a litany of chores, a serious craving for pizza and a carton of butternut squash that was about to take a turn for the worse, I decided to buck up and cook. I went the easiest route possible: roasting squash so the oven does all the work, quinoa, which takes less than 15 minutes to cook, and cooking spinach directly in the quinoa so that I have to wash one less dish.

This butternut squash quinoa is one of those recipes that isn’t really a recipe at all — more a template based on what I had lying around. If you’ve got some greens in the fridge or in the freezer, dump them in. No quinoa, but have some rice instead? NBD. Want to use other spices? Go right ahead! The beauty of these meals are their flexibility and ease, and when you’re scrambling to get dinner together, that’s all that matters.

And then I added an egg.

Butternut Squash Quinoa
Makes 2 servings

– 1 20-ounce package pre-cut butternut squash, cut into 1-inch pieces

– 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

– 2 teaspoons smoked paprika, divided

– 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, divided

– salt and pepper, to taste

– 1/2 cup quinoa (I used a mix of red and white), rinsed in a fine-mesh sieve

– 1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1) Roast the butternut squash: preheat the oven to 425F and line a baking sheet with tin foil. Toss the butternut squash, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, 1 teaspoon of the smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of the cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Place in a single layer and roast for 25-30 minutes, until the squash is tender and browned.

2) While the squash is roasting, in a medium saucepan heat the quinoa with 1 cup of water. Bring to a rolling boil, then cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the frozen spinach, then recover and simmer for an additional 10 minutes, until the water is absorbed and a small white curl sprouts from the quinoa seeds.

3) Add the roasted squash with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, teaspoon of smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne. Toss to combine, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

Note: This is fabulous with a fried egg.