Sequestration Meal #532

 

Sometimes, I want to be different. This was one of those days. And it worked out so well.

I have here some spinach-mushroom barley pilaf (recipe from Diabetes Canada) and butternut squash fritters (recipe from Healthiir) with some homemade tartar sauce. Could I have had rice pilaf, roasted butternut squash, and beans like a more normal person? Sure. But then I wouldn't have had this.

Barley is always a nice change of pace when I think to make it, though it does take longer to cook than rice. It's not wheat, but it contains gluten, so this is not a gluten-free meal; for that, you would want to use rice. The recipe used what seemed like a ton of onions, but ultimately I was glad it had that many onions, because they added such great flavors.

But the star of this show is the butternut squash fritters, which are super allergy friendly if you need that--they're just butternut squash, chickpea flour, and seasonings that are formed into patties and pan-fried in a bit of oil. And yet they are amazing. They're amazing probably because of the chickpea flour--I think everything with chickpea flour is amazing--but butternut squash does a lot here, too.

I followed the advice of the original recipe and served them with tartar sauce. Although the fritters are in no way fishy whatsoever, somehow the tartar sauce was the perfect accompaniment. Go figure.

Although the inspiration for this was mostly that I had all the relevant produce on hand and it needed to be used, I would definitely make all this again easily.