Squash is a healthy and tasty vegetable with a dense, juicy, tasty pulp. The best way of cooking is stewing in the oven, slow cooker or frying pan, which preserves all the useful trace elements and vitamins. Stewed squash will be an excellent side dish for meat, sausages or fish, they are delicious on their own, unaccompanied.
Squash with vegetables: a step by step recipe
Vegetarians and people who are forced to follow a diet and count calories will love the delicious vegetable stew, in which young squash will play the main violin. Their nutritional value is high, vegetables are rich in vitamins A and C, potassium, magnesium and other valuable microelements.
Ingredients:
- 3 young squash;
- 1 sweet juicy carrot;
- 1 onion;
- 3 tbsp. l. sugar green peas (fresh or frozen);
- 1 medium sweet pepper;
- fresh herbs (parsley, basil, celery);
- salt;
- ground black pepper;
- refined vegetable oil.
Wash the squash, cut into pieces and remove the peel. Chop the pulp into small cubes. Peel the carrots, coarsely grate or chop very finely. A stew with bright orange cubes looks prettier, but grated carrots taste softer.
Pepper (preferably red), peel and cut into squares. Pour boiling water over the frozen peas for 10 minutes, then put on a sieve. If fresh peas are used, there is no need to prepare them.
Heat odorless vegetable oil in a deep, thick-walled skillet. Put finely chopped onion, fry until transparent. Then put carrots, and after 2-3 minutes - squash cubes. Stir and simmer covered for 10 minutes. Add bell pepper pieces and green peas. Season with salt, pepper, simmer for another 5 minutes. It is impossible to cook the squash for too long, otherwise the tender pulp will turn into mashed potatoes. Serve hot, sprinkle with finely chopped herbs.
Young squash in creamy sauce
Dense, but tender young squash can be stewed with cream, adding champignons or wild mushrooms for taste. A good recipe for people who follow the rules of a healthy diet, the dish can be served immediately after cooking or heated in the microwave. The calorie content is moderate; not too fatty drinking cream is used for the sauce.
Ingredients:
- 700 g of young squash;
- 300 g champignons;
- 200 ml of 10% cream;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- fresh parsley and dill;
- salt;
- ground black pepper;
- odorless vegetable oil.
Cut young strong squash into medium-sized pieces. If the skin is soft, leave it on. Fry vegetables in a little vegetable oil, stirring occasionally with a spatula. Season with salt and pepper, put on a plate.
Add a little more oil to the pan, pour the mushrooms cut into thin slices. Fry for 3-4 minutes, add chopped garlic and herbs. Pour in the cream and cook until some of the liquid has evaporated. Put the fried pieces of squash in a frying pan, mix. Cook for no more than 5 minutes, until the creamy sauce thickens. Stewed squash is a great light dinner and can also be served as a side dish.
Squash in a spicy tomato-sour cream sauce: a classic version
Those who love spicy dishes will love squash in sour cream and tomato sauce with chili, coriander and other spices. The dish will be an excellent hot or cold appetizer, it can be served as a side dish for grilled meat.
Ingredients:
- 3 young squash of medium size;
- 1 juicy carrot;
- 3 tbsp. l. fatty sour cream;
- 1 tbsp. l. tomato paste;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 1 onion;
- 0.5 pods of red chili;
- 0.25 tsp dried coriander;
- 0.25 tsp cumin seeds;
- refined sunflower oil;
- salt;
- freshly ground black pepper.
Wash, dry, peel vegetables. Cut the squash into cubes, carrots into slices, and onions into thin half rings. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan, put vegetables and fry for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Season with salt, add cumin, coriander, ground black pepper and chopped garlic. Pour in sour cream, stir. Simmer covered until soft.
When the sour cream is thin, add the tomato paste and chopped chili. Stir, simmer over low heat under a closed lid for 7-8 minutes. Stir, remove from heat, place on warm plates and serve with thin slices of bread.
Squash in a slow cooker: step-by-step cooking
The multicooker-pressure cooker will help to cook the squash in the shortest possible time, while the vegetables will retain their density and will not boil into porridge. To make the stew more delicious, you should add fresh tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers and potatoes to the squash. The proportions can be changed, an important condition is not to reduce the number of squash, it is their taste that solo in the dish.
Ingredients:
- 3 medium-sized squash;
- 4 potatoes;
- 1 large carrot;
- 2 sweet peppers;
- 1 onion;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 2 large ripe tomatoes;
- vegetable oil for frying;
- fresh basil;
- salt;
- ground black pepper.
Wash and peel the vegetables, cut into equal cubes. First, remove the skin from the tomatoes by scalding the fruits with boiling water. Finely chop the onion, finely chop the garlic. Put the onion and garlic in a multicooker bowl with a little vegetable oil and fry in the "Vegetables" mode without closing the lid. To prevent the mixture from burning, stir it with a silicone spatula.
Add squash, tomatoes, potatoes and peppers to the bowl, salt a little. Close the lid, move the valve to the “Closed” position and set the “Extinguishing” program. The multicooker pressure cooker will cook vegetables in 20 minutes. Before opening the lid, let off steam by turning the valve. Add ground black pepper, salt to taste and serve as a side dish with meat or fish.
