Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Butternut Squash Black Bean Pilaf

On Saturday night, I went out to dinner with a couple of my coworkers to a fantastic little Latin American restaurant called San Juan Cafe.  I ordered a mofongo (a plantain-based dish from Puerto Rico) filled with portabella mushrooms, zucchini, and yellow squash grilled to perfection, served with Cuban black beans and sweet potatoes.  I was so impressed and so excited to have experienced a new exotic dish!

Anyway, since this meal, I have wanted to bring black beans back into my cooking.  Hence the following recipe of my black bean butternut squash pilaf!

When I say recipe, do I mean bowl of ingredients thrown together and warmed up?  Yes!


First the black beans.


Then, the roasted butternut squash and some bulgur wheat.


Season with salt and pepper.  I could have stopped there, but of course I added some cinnamon glazed roasted garbanzo beans...



And then to top it all off, I added chunks of crisp granny smith apple which made it amazing.



The tartness and crunchiness of the granny smith contrasts with the warm, autumn pilaf so well.

And for dessert... A banana milk shake.

Pretty much the exact same thing as the banana ice cream, but with more almond milk!


First you take your almond milk (regular milk will do just fine, but the almond milk gives it a sweeter flavor) and your frozen bananas.


Pour some milk into the blender (a cup or two, depending on how big you want your milkshake to be) and toss those frozen banana chunks in with it.

Blend away until frothy.

1 comment:

  1. OOhhh I cannot wait to make this, Julia! Thank you for posting, it reminds me of a breakfast recipe in YogaJournal November which I was shy to try since I've never really cooked that grain! It sounds like a great combination of textures and flavors. Im going to give it a go and show you the results!

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