Winter Squash, Leek and Farro Gratin With Feta and Mint

- Total Time
- 1 hour 20 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2pounds winter squash, peeled and cut in small dice (about ½ inch)
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 4tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1pound leeks (2 large), white and light green parts only, cleaned and chopped
- 2garlic cloves, minced
- 3 to 4tablespoons chopped fresh mint, or 1 to 2 tablespoons dried mint (to taste)
- 3eggs
- 3ounces feta, crumbled
- ¾cup cooked faro
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Oil a 2-quart baking dish or gratin. Line a sheet pan with parchment. Place squash on baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Toss squash until evenly coated with oil. Place in oven and roast until tender and lightly colored, about 25 to 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Turn heat down to 375 degrees.
- Step 2
Heat another tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add leeks. Cook, stirring, until they begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add a generous pinch of salt and continue to cook, stirring often, until tender, another 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to a minute. Add squash and mint to pan and toss together. Remove from heat.
- Step 3
In a large bowl beat eggs. Add salt to taste (remembering that feta is very salty) and feta, and beat together until feta has broken up into eggs. Stir in squash and leek mixture and farro. Scrape into oiled baking dish. Drizzle remaining oil over top.
- Step 4
Bake 35 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from heat. Serve hot, warm or room temperature.
- Advance preparation: You can roast the squash up to 2 days ahead of making the gratin. Cooked farro will keep for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator and freezes well. The gratin will keep for 4 or 5 days in the refrigerator and can be frozen for a month. Thaw in medium oven or at room temperature.
Private Notes
Comments
If you roast a winter squash for about 10 minutes in the oven (at 375-400) you can then cut it open and peel away the outer skin!
Since we were eating this as a main course, I doubled the farro and added 1 Tbsp of harissa paste into the leeks, along with the garlic. I think it could have benefited from one more egg (to help hold the extra farro together), but MAN was this delicious! It just seemed like it would have been a little 2-dimensional without the harissa...
Would also be nice with fresh dill instead of mint. I saved some effort by roasting the leeks and garlic in the same pan as the squash. I added the leeks after the squash had been roasting for 10 minutes, and added the garlic 5 minutes after that.
the flavors are good but mine ended up so dry. def needs a sauce!
Great vegetarian side dish for the holidays. Used butternut squash and omitted the mint. Easy to make ahead and reheat.
I can't eat dairy, but worried the umami factor would suffer when I omitted the feta. So: I added ~1/3 c. nutritional yeast a bit more olive oil to the eggs. Also included some kale fresh sage (what I had on hand) to the leek sauté. Tossed the whole with a good douse of Italian condimento blanco, then sprinkled with paprika slivered almonds. Voilà: transformed to a dairy-free delight.
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