Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Gluten-Free UFO Sighting!


Oh my! What is it?? I recently spotted this UFO hovering in my back yard recently, and it sure looks ominous! lol

After floating around in front of me for a moment, the unidentified flying object started to become clear in my vision (and in the camera's focus),...


And, finally, after the former UFO came in for a landing on my deck railing, I quickly discovered that UFO's can be edible! :)


OK, so I have lost it for the day it seems... but, whenever my wife asks me if I want a White Squash for dinner, I always in turn refer to them as UFO's because of their unique flying-saucer / disc-like shape.

If you have not had one of these white squash before, I highly recommend them. These gluten-free diet treats are wonderful in all sorts of recipes, as their mild flavor (even milder than a zucchini) and nice texture go well with all sorts of other gluten-free ingredients of choice. E.g., we love to fry them up with some Caramelized Onions and Garlic.

Basically, we just cut the squash into one-inch cubes or so, and fry them up or otherwise add them to whatever recipe we need them in. They are also great when prepared in recipes featuring tomatoes too. We will use them as we would eggplant or zucchini, and/or in combination with the same. I like them with a bit of Tamari too, or prepared with Chinese or Thai style sauces. You get the idea: highly versatile veggie!

In addition, these gluten-free vegetables produced a lot per each vine we planted. We placed tomato-rings around a couple plants, and the squash grew mostly vertical when confined in this way, which made for easy harvesting - as the UFO's were quite easy to spot suspended from the vines (and, their nearly-white color stands out from the surrounding foliage nicely).

Hopefully you happen to encounter these wonderful squash somewhere, whether in your garden, at a local farmers' market, or your favorite grocery store. They are definitely worth trying.

6 comments:

GF in Cleveland said...

Maybe I'm a little off today myself because your pictures definetly made me laugh.

I've never had winter squash, but given my like for eggplant and zucchini, you've made me want to check it out. think it would be good in a vegetable lasanga?

Mike Eberhart said...

Dana,
I'd be rather sure this squash would work well in a veggie lasagna. And, now that you mention it, *I* have not had lasagna in ages, and I have some nice rice-lasagna noodles here (Tinkyada?) I need to try. mmmmm. Good idea!

Li loves David said...

Those are the most adorable little squash (squashes?) I've ever seen! I've never seen them in the stores around here, or if I did, I probably thought they were decorative gourds. I need to find some, and maybe roast them. Thanks for the info!

Lynn Barry said...

What a fun and informative blog entry. LOVE IT!

Maureen "Hold The Gluten" said...

I am in the same boat as Li. I think I have decorated with these squash during Halloween. Never eaten one though :) I'm so bored of "summer squash" at this point that I am looking forward to anything of a winter variety! Thanks for sharing...

Anonymous said...

I have not seen these myself but I would try them and since you say they are very mild I guess a lot of onion and garlic would be very nice indeed.