Delicata Squash with Wild Rice

We had this for dinner last night. It was so good! Though I couldn't find the wild rice that I was sure I'd bought, so I used some kind of brown rice--it wasn't ordinary brown rice but had brown and black grains--that I had on hand. Here it is:

Delicata Squash with Wild (or not) Rice

2 delicata squash
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1/2 cup dry sherry
2 cups cooked wild rice
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
1/3 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Halve the squash and scrape out the seeds. (You can use the seeds and strings in vegetable broth.) Arrange squash, cut side down, on a baking dish and bake in a 400 degree oven until tender.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and saute onion until soft. Stir in the sherry and pepper and simmer 3 minutes. Stir in the cooked wild rice and heat through. Add the parsley and mix well. Keep warm.

In a blender (or food processor) puree the sour cream, toasted walnuts, cream cheese, milk, lemon juice, cinnamon and 1/2 teasoon salt. Add a little extra milk if needed to make a smooth sauce.

To serve, spoon the rice mixture into the squash cavities, pour walnut sauce over squash and serve immediately.

So, while we were eating this yummy dish, Paul had an interesting idea for a cookbook. He thought of it because, for Hibi, I served the sauce separately and gave her walnuts and a lemon half to squeeze over hers. He thought it would be a great idea to write a cookbook that has recipes for meals that are easily made to meet the needs of both vegetarians who eat dairy and eggs and vegans. Like this one--just leave the sauce off, have some walnuts and lemon juice, and it's a tasty vegan meal. I've really learned a lot about adapting to both diets in the last year and a half, since Hibi went vegan. But it would have been difficult if we'd gone straight from eating meat to having to do both veg and vegan.

Hibi really liked the idea and immediately started writing down recipes that we do this with--pastitsio (I make the regular meatless pastitsio that I adapted years ago, then also make a vegan cream sauce and make a separate small one for Hibi), bruschetta, Mexican night--just put on your taco whatever you want, etc. I might be able to do this. We'll see.