For day 2 of my Five Days of Farmer’s Market Meals, I’m bringing in the squash. You just don’t have summer without squash! A couple of summers ago, I bought my first patty pan squash at – per usual – the advice of the farmer who sold it to me.

I couldn’t get over how cute these squashes are. I just envisioned Mike and myself sitting down with our individual squashes for a nice little personalized squash dinner.

Anyways, I can’t resist buying them as soon as they’re available and serving up personal patty pan squashes. They’re perfect.

The farmer’s market ingredients used in this dish are:

• Patty pan squashes
• Grape tomatoes
• Yellow onion
• Green bell peppers
• Cayenne pepper
• Garlic

Preheat oven to 350F

What You Need:

• 1 tbsp coconut oil (or cooking oil of your choice)
• 1 cup farro seeds
• 2 large or 4 small patty pan squashes
• 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper, chopped (green, yellow, red–doesn’t matter)
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper, finely chopped (or hot pepper or your choice) – Optional
• 2 tbsp chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/4 cup shredded fresh parm
• 2 cups canned diced tomatoes
• 1/2 or 1 tbsp butter for each squash you’re making (amount depends on the size of the squashes) – Optional but highly recommended!

What You Do:

Rinse the cup of farro seeds and drain cloudy water. In a medium saucepan, bring the farro and 3 cups of water to a boil. Keep covered and lower heat. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until the seeds have fully expanded and taste slightly chewy (but not hard!)

At the same time, boil about an inch of water in a large pot. Add whole patty pan squashes and cover. The squashes will steam cook this way, and are ready when you can easily pierce them with a fork.

While the farro and squashes are cooking, heat coconut oil in a large skillet and add the minced garlic.

After about 1 minute, add onion and gently stir until translucent. Then add green pepper and cayenne pepper and cook for about 5 minutes.

Once farro is done, combine with the onion mixture and stir thoroughly. Add cherry tomatoes and stir. Then add the walnuts or pecans and stir.

When the squashes are done, gently slice off just the tops. Then, use a spoon, melon baller or – like me – an ice cream scoop, to gently carve out the insides, being careful to remove all the seeds but not too much of the squash. It’ll be pretty watery, so feel free to just hold them upside down over the sink to drain them out.

              

Now comes the fun part. Place the squashes in a baking dish and fill each squash with the farro mix, packing each spoonful down to fit as much as you can. I just let them overflow over the sides.

Next, top each squash with a butter patty, and then cover each squash with the diced tomatoes, and sprinkle the shredded parm on top.

Bake for about 10 minutes in the oven to get it hot and melt the cheese.

Then, just scoop out the squashes for everyone’s individual serving! It’ll be a hit!

 

 

Pro Tip: Make this with quinoa! Coucous! Risotto! Other rices! Add meat! You can make it any way you want.