Butternut, Cranberry, and Apple Casserole

Nov 20, 2017 | Fruit, One Pan Meal, Recipes, Side Dish

This recipe is my NUTRIVORE makeover of a recipe from Organic Life magazine.  What’s a NUTRIVORE you ask?  A NUTRIVORE is someone who seeks nutrient density to fuel their body for their best life.  This NUTRIVORE makeover removes common allergens and ramps up the nutrition of the original recipe.  The original recipe comes from Organic Life Magazine and can be found here.This is a recipe I have been making for years and it is a fantastic holiday side dish.  I’m adding it to my Thanksgiving spread this year. I have also made this casserole and added browned bulk pastured pork sausage and spinach greens—turning it into a meal. Serves 6

Ingredients

1/2 cup grass-fed ghee (if tolerated) or Nutiva brand Coconut Oil with Buttery Flavor* melted, plus 1 tablespoon at room temperature

1 large butternut squash, peeled, halved, seeded, and diced into 1-inch cubes

3 sweet-tart apples like Fuji or Braeburn** that will keep their shape after baking, peeled, cored, and diced into 1/2-inch cubes

1 1/3 cups dried cranberries  OR fresh cranberries tossed with 1/3 cup sweetener*** to balance the tartness of the fresh berries

1/3 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme

1 tablespoon kosher salt and one teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon seaweed flakes****

1/2 cup cassava or almond flours

 

Optional:  Add 1 pound browned and drained bulk pastured pork sausage and  3 large handfuls of spinach to turn this into a meal for 3-4 people.  The sausage and spinach version makes a great brunch item too.   If you are local, my absolute favorite pastured pork sausage comes from This Old Farm.  Try their Sugar-Free Garden Sage.
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-by-11-inch baking dish with the 1 tablespoon room-temperature butter and set aside.2. In a large bowl, toss together the squash, apples, cranberries, parsley, thyme, salt, and black pepper. Drizzle in the melted butter and stir to combine, then add the flour and mix to evenly coat the squash mixture.3. Turn the mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake until the top is golden brown and the squash is tender but not mushy (a paring knife should easily slip into the center of a piece of squash), 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool 5 minutes before serving.*Note about Nutiva’s Coconut Oil with Buttery Flavor:  I am wary of products with “flavors” as those “flavors” can mean nearly anything and everything.  In this case, Nutiva tells us what is in the productand they are a brand I trust.**Here is a fantastic guide to choosing the best apples for cooking and baking.***I would use 1/3 cup coconut sugar or cane sugar****Sea vegetables are nutrient dense and have nutrition profiles unlike any other foods.  They are high in iodine and other trace minerals missing from modern diets.  Use different kinds as each has specific properties. (The Wahls Protocol by Dr. Terry Wahls and Eve Adamson, 2014) When added as dried flakes, they add a powerful nutrition boost while having no flavor.
%d bloggers like this: