I've never tried summer squash like this before (Affordable REAL Food)

If you want to elevate a simple summer squash then this is definitely the way to do it. I honestly wasn't expecting it to taste this good, I can't wait for you guys to try this. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Earthy Goodness Kitchen, my name is George and I've worked as a chef for 10 years and I love sharing delicious plant-based food so let's get into this recipe. I've got these two lovely summer squash, these are called patty pan squash, they've got a really nice tender skin which you can eat and they're similar to courgette in flavour, slightly more buttery and tender. Now I haven't cooked this dish before but I have a rough idea of how I want it to look and taste in my head so the plan is we're going to scoop out the flesh from these two patty pan squash, we're then going to roast them whole and while that's happening we're going to make a delicious creamy sort of mushroom bechamel with some nice seasonings and probably some tofu in there for some protein and then we'll stuff these with that mushroom bechamel, roast them for a little bit longer and that's going to be the main part of the dish. I'll probably do a couple of other extra little side dishes to go along with it and this is typically how I cook, I look at the ingredients in the fridge, in the cupboard and just think about what's going to work well together and what seasonings, spices, herbs, things like that that are going to bring the dish together. I do of course get inspiration from places such as YouTube videos, magazines, restaurants and indeed my viewers. The other day I did a community post on YouTube asking you all what you would cook with these patty pan squash and one viewer did suggest filling them with a really nice mushroom filling so I'm sort of going off that and giving it my own twist. I'm going to simply cut off the tops of these squash and then using a spoon or a knife we're just going to scoop out the insides and we'll keep all this and we'll use it in the filling that's going to be stuffed back into these summer squash. So we of course don't want these falling apart so I'm going to leave at least one to two centimetres of that outside skin but you can scoop out a fair amount, you definitely want to get rid of all the seeds. So there you go, we have one perfectly hollowed out, ready for the filling and I'm going to repeat the process with the second and we'll just give this filling a quick rough chop, ready to be cooked into the mushroom mix. I've got a few potatoes here which I'm going to serve alongside so I'm just going to quickly cut them down to roughly the same sort of size so they cook somewhat evenly and we always cook potatoes in cold water with a little salt in there as well so they cook nice and evenly so I'll bring those to a simmer and cook them for around 15 to 20 minutes until nice and tender. Not sure what I'll do after that, I might fry them, we'll see. So we'll just give these a quick season, I'm going to go in with some olive oil first and I'm just going to use my hands and get that rubbed all over, you want them nicely coated inside and out and then of course a good sprinkling of salt all around, just keeping the seasoning of the actual squash very simple and just doing salt and pepper. You can sort of get some on the chopping board and then just roll the squash through it, picking up all that seasoning. You can also do this on a plate as well, slightly less messy. And I've just got some rosemary that's hanging out on the windowsill so I'm just going to pop that into the centre, should infuse a little bit of flavour into them, just go for a little extra drizzle of olive oil into the centre and then I'm going to roast these in the airfryer at around I think 180 degrees for, I'll start with 15 minutes and see how they look. I've just found some mint in the fridge so I'm going to add that into these potatoes and that's going to infuse a lovely fresh minty flavour into them. Okay I think these are just about done, nice and tender, lovely. I'm going to switch the heat off and drain them. These potatoes are honestly just delicious as they are, they're really nice quality. They are so delicious, they're buttery in texture, slightly nutty and then you get a little bit of mint at the end so we're going to leave them as they are. I've got a few slaw ingredients in the fridge so we're going to make a sort of lemony Dijon slaw. Okay the squash have had 15 minutes in the airfryer and are looking really nice. We've got some lovely caramelization on them, I can smell the rosemary and they are ready to be stuffed. I'm going to use some chestnut mushrooms in this dish but feel free to use any mushroom variety that you fancy. I'm simply going to dice these mushrooms into about one centimetre cubed, keep it fairly rustic, I want a nice bit of texture in there rather than it just being a sort of mushroom mush. So just cut your mushrooms into strips and then into one centimetre cubes. When you're prepping veg, always keep your chopping board nice and clear so once you've got a decent amount of prep done, just take it off the chopping board so that you've got a nice clear workspace. Treat time for the animals, Poppy's gonna pick out her whimsy. What's she going for? Crocodile, toothbrush or a stick? I don't know what that was, a stick I think. Time for Mitzi as well. What's she got Sophie? Flick it. Flick it, what flavour? Chicken. Ew, not on the vegan channel. Sorry guys you didn't hear that, I actually did go for a stick. Poppy has also got two new toys as it's her birthday in just a couple days. We've got grommet here and we've got a duck and we've got even more toys coming and also I'm going to bake her a nice cake, carrot cake, her favourite, carrot and peanut butter. Now I'm definitely making more filling than I need but that's fine because I can use it as a delicious pasta sauce later in the week. Okay so we're starting off this mushroom bechamel by frying off the diced mushrooms. Camera wasn't recording when I added the mushrooms but I've just got them in a really hot pan with some olive oil and the reason we're starting with the mushrooms is so we can get some nice colour and caramelisation on them. For some extra protein I'm going to go in with some crumbled extra firm tofu. You can just stir that through the mushrooms and we'll get a little colour on that as well. Next we're going in with just one finely chopped onion, brown onion. You could also use shallots if you wanted to or red onion even. I'm going to add in the centre of the squashes now as well and we'll just cook that down into those mushrooms and tofu. Just going to add a sprinkling of sage, you could use thyme, rosemary, whatever you've got to hand and then the easiest way to prepare garlic we're just going to cut off the end which attaches to the bulb and then just place your knife on top and crush the clove. That's going to help you remove the skin but also start breaking down the garlic clove. So now the garlic is already starting to break down so it's going to be really easy to get it nice and minced, won't take long at all. The garlic can go in now as well as we're just sort of sweating all these ingredients down. Okay these ingredients have reduced down nicely so I'm going to add a good grating of black pepper now and a pinch of salt and now you can turn down the heat. To turn this into a lovely creamy mushroom sauce we're going to make a bechamel starting with a spoonful of vegan butter. You could use olive oil if you wanted to or no fat at all even, it'll just give it a nice luxurious mouthfeel and then go in with a heaped tablespoon of flour and stir that through and we'll cook the flour out just for a minute or two before we start adding in our plant-based milk. So just a little at a time we're going to add in our soy milk or any plant-based milk of your choice, you could also do half milk to half vegetable stock if you want. So I'm probably going to add around 250 ml of soy milk, we want to keep this fairly thick as we're of course stuffing it into those squash. So I'm not going to add any more milk now and we'll just cook this out for around five to eight minutes until we can't taste any of the flour. While I'm here I'm going to add some seasonings starting with some whole grain mustard, some nutritional yeast for that lovely cheesy and nutty flavour, two good tablespoons and a nice dusting of freshly grated nutmeg or just extra pepper if you can't get nutmeg. Okay this is looking beautifully creamy, thick and indulgent so we'll just add a couple more ingredients to finish it off and we'll finish this mushroomy bechamel with a couple fresh elements starting with some finely chopped spring onion and then I've got some parsley, just going to get rid of the thicker stalks, you don't need to worry about the thin ones though, and just give that a quick chop through, starting with some finely chopped parsley. Creamy dishes always benefit from a squeeze of acidity, squeeze of lemon in this case, just to sort of cut through the creaminess and fattiness and just brighten everything up and there you go, this is ready to go into our squash. This is proper comfort food here, really delicious. These squash are looking absolutely great, lovely and caramelised on the outside and nice and tender as well. You can remove the rosemary and then spoon in that delicious filling, really pack it down into the squash, fill them right to the top and then for a finishing touch, just a little sprinkle of nutritional yeast on top and some breadcrumbs, these ones already have a little seasoning in as I used them for a previous dish and then just a touch of olive oil and these are ready to go back into the air fryer for I think around 7 to 10 minutes. Carefully place them in, I'm very excited to try this. I'm just going to make a really simple slaw starting with some sweet heart lettuce, finely shredded, I'm only making a small amount so that will be plenty and I've got some baby cucumber here, leftover from the previous video, just going to thinly slice it and some grated carrots, just a small one. If you hold the carrot at an angle rather than sort of parallel to the chopping board, you'll get really nice long strips of carrot, being careful of your fingers and then just a little finely sliced spring onion, this will be a nice contrast to the rich and hearty mushroom bechamel so we'll go in with some lemon zest to start. I always like to make use of the lemon zest, it has so much citrusy goodness in it, don't need to add too much. Squeeze of lemon, sometimes I'll do it with my hand but as a sure way to not get any seeds in, a sieve is a good way to do it. A little bit of black pepper, small pinch of salt and then just about a quarter teaspoon of Dijon mustard and that's it, just a really nice refreshing slaw to go with our stuffed squash. Just give it a good mix up, get it all nice and coated in the seasonings with clean hands of course. I always like to use my hands when cooking, it just sort of brings you closer to the ingredients and sort of understanding how they work I guess. For example, we've added salt into here so we're going to start to feel the moisture coming out of these vegetables. If you did this with a spoon you wouldn't feel that so it's good to understand all these things in cooking. It's the same with making bread, you want to make it with your hands first so you understand what's going on and then you can use a machine afterwards if you want. The potatoes I will just dress lightly with some olive oil and some cracked black pepper, just really simple like that. Give that a little toss just to stop them drying out and that olive oil will add a nice fruity peppery note along with the pepper. My partner Sophie has just gone to the post office so Poppy has curled up into a little ball on the sofa. Oh so cute, she's taught herself how to use pillows from watching us use them. Very sweet. Now does that look delicious or what? Mmm my god that is good. If you want to elevate a simple summer squash then this is definitely the way to do it. I honestly wasn't expecting it to taste this good, I can't wait for you guys to try this. The squash is caramelized on the outside and buttery soft and almost nutty in the center and you can taste that rosemary sort of perfuming through it really nicely. Then you've got the creamy and hearty mushroom filling which is just really lovely and indulgent and you get little chewy bits of tofu which works perfectly. Finish it off with those lovely tender and slightly minty potatoes and a really nice fresh slaw to cut through the creaminess and you have a delicious dish to serve to friends and family. I'm going to write out the recipe for this now and I really hope you all enjoy it. Thank you all so much for watching, for some more plant-based goodness check out this video.