Baby Golden Beets over Butternut Squash, Grilled Artichoke Hearts with Seitan and Garlic (No Added Fat)

I'm excited by the idea of easily cooking squash under pressure that I described on Sunday. I thought I'd do that with a butternut squash that I purchased today.

Last May, I found that pressure cooked baby beet cut into 1/2" pieces cooked well in 4m. That sounded like a good beginning to a filling for the squash. Here is what I did:

Ingredients

• 3 baby beets (I used golden, but red would have resulted in a nicer color to contrast with the butternut squash), peeled, and cut into 1/2" pieces
• 4 leaves kale, stems excepted, roughly hand cut into approximately 3/4" or smaller squares
• (Optional) I had a little bit, about 1/4 cup, of cooked butternut squash leftover from yesterday, and cut it into 3/4" squares
• Vegan bouillon cube
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup onion cut into thin 1/8" x 3/4" slices
• 1/4 t (or to taste) salt
• 1/4 t (or to taste) fresh ground black pepper

Process

• I put all of the ingredients except the onion, salt, and pepper into my Instant Pot  pressure cooker and cooked for 4 minutes.
• When I was ready to serve, I slowly let out remaining pressure and mixed in the onion, salt, and pepper.

I had pressure cooked an intact butternut squash by putting it on a trivet over a cup of water in the Instant Pot and cooked under pressure steam for 8m. When I was ready to serve, I cut it in half and filled with the beet mixture. I had also made a simple sauté of grilled artichokes, seitan strips, onion, and garlic.

Results

Dinner was good! My wife thought that the butternut squash was well cooked, but I thought it could have been a bit softer. Nevertheless, we all thought it was a tasty and interesting meal. The garlic added a nice "punch" to the seitan and artichoke dish.

Ideas for the future

Next time that I try steam pressure cooking intact squash, I'll try for a 9 or 10 minute cycle. Color would have been nicer with red vs. golden beets, but I don't like red beets as much. I should experiment with a sauce, perhaps miso-based, for squash cooked with a topping like I tried today.