Harvest Grain Bowl | In Season

This is the story of two local kids made good: the butternut squash and the Baldwin apple. The former is a native of Stow, Massachusetts, bred by a farmer named Charles Leggett. He named the butternut for its smooth-as-butter texture and nutty flavor and introduced it to horticulturists at the nearby Waltham Field Station. They, in turn, marketed it as the Waltham Butternut, which remains wildly popular today.

The Baldwin, meanwhile, was more of a happy accident, a chance seedling that sprouted in the hills of Wilmington, Massachusetts, in the mid-1700s and was propagated and popularized by Colonel Loammi Baldwin. The Baldwin is a wonderful apple, sweet-tart and firm, and it lends zingy notes to this hale and hearty grain bowl accented with roasted squash and chickpeas, feta, and a lime-honey dressing. But you needn’t limit yourself to Baldwins, as Pink Lady or Honeycrisp apples will also work beautifully here.

I love this dish as a vegetarian main course, but I’ll also serve it with grilled chicken or fish. I also love how efficient it is to prepare: You prep and roast the vegetables and make the dressing while the quinoa cooks, so everything is ready to assemble at the same time. It’s cozy, healthy, and packed with flavor: autumn in a bowl.

Harvest Grain Bowl with Roasted Squash & Apples