Oat Stuffed Squash (Low Cholesterol Side Dish)

The side dish is where most heart healthy eating actually happens, and it is the part nobody plans.

You think about the chicken. You think about whether there is enough of it. Then the vegetable is whatever is left in the crisper drawer, steamed, with nothing on it.

This oat stuffed squash side dish is planned. It goes on the table looking like something you made on purpose, and it is built out of the foods that bring cholesterol down.

For those of you I haven’t met, I am Veronica, a Registered Dietitian and author of the Portfolio Diet cookbook. I have counselled people on lowering their cholesterol for over a decade, and the approach that works is adding foods to your plate instead of taking them away.

This is what adding looks like at dinner.

What Is Actually in This Oat Stuffed Squash Dish

Oats, chickpeas, walnuts, olive oil.

Those four are four of the five food groups in the Portfolio Diet, the eating pattern for lowering LDL cholesterol. LDL is the one people call the bad cholesterol.

Here is how they line up:

• Steel cut oats are viscous fibre. Viscous means sticky, and sticky fibre is the kind that holds on to cholesterol in your gut and takes it out with it.
• Chickpeas are plant protein.
• Walnuts are the nuts and seeds group.
• Olive oil is the oil group.
• The fifth group is plant sterols, and those come from fortified foods rather than from a squash. Nothing in this recipe covers that one.

Now the honest part. The Portfolio Diet works at daily amounts, and one serving of one side dish is not a full day of any of these groups. The walnuts here come to about a tablespoon per serving. The daily target for nuts is closer to a third of a cup.

So this oat stuffed squash is not a cholesterol treatment. It is one dish that pulls in the right direction, made from the food families that do the work. Dinner has to be something. It may as well be this.

If You’re Watching Your Blood Sugar Too

A lot of you are managing cholesterol and blood sugar at the same time. I am a Certified Diabetes Educator, so this is usually the first question I get about a dish like this one.

Squash and oats both have carbohydrate in them. That does not make either one off limits. What matters is how much lands on your plate and what sits beside it.

Three things about this oat stuffed squash low cholesterol side dish help:

• The oats are steel cut. They are the least processed version of the oat, so they break down more slowly than instant oats do. You can taste the difference too, because they stay chewy instead of going to porridge.
• The fibre is doing two jobs. The same sticky fibre that helps with cholesterol also slows how quickly the meal reaches your bloodstream.
• Put protein next to it. This is a side dish, and at eight servings it carries about 9 grams of protein. Chicken, fish, or a bigger scoop of chickpeas alongside makes the whole plate steadier.

The sweetest thing in the bowl is the dried cranberries. If you want them gentler, use unsweetened dried cranberries, or use half the amount. The dish does not fall apart without them.

Watch How To Make This Oat Stuffed Squash

Veronica to add video here

How to Make This Oat Stuffed Squash Ahead

This is the part that decides whether a dish like this ever gets made on a Tuesday.

Roast the squash the day before and keep the halves in the fridge, cut side up. Cook the oats the day before too. The filling keeps about three days, and it is better on day two once the rosemary has had time to get into everything.

Then fill the squash, cover it, and reheat at 350°F for 15 to 20 minutes before dinner. Add the balsamic glaze after it comes out of the oven, not before, or it bakes into the filling and you lose the shine on top.

Tips and Swaps For This Low Cholesterol Side Dish

• No mushrooms? Leave them out and add another cup of spinach, or some diced celery for the same bit of texture.
• No chickpeas? White kidney beans or cooked green lentils both work. Red lentils turn to mush.
• Gluten free: use certified gluten free oats and check your vegetable broth. Everything else in the recipe already is.
• The scooped out squash is not waste. It goes into soup, a smoothie, or mashed with a little olive oil as a second side later in the week.
  

If You’re Watching Your Sodium

There is no added salt anywhere in this recipe and fits into the DASH diet and Mediterranean diet plan well.

The flavour is coming from the balsamic, the Dijon, the lemon juice and the rosemary. That is the same thing I do in my no salt added chicken marinades, because food that tastes flat does not get made twice.

The only real sodium sources left are the low sodium broth and the teaspoon of Dijon, and most of the broth gets drained off with the oats. Rinse your chickpeas if you are using canned, which takes a good amount of the sodium off them.

Questions I Get About This Low Cholesterol Side Dish

Is butternut squash okay if I have diabetes?

Yes. It is a vegetable that happens to carry carbohydrate, and it comes with fibre attached. Watch the portion and put protein next to it to help with blood sugar control.

Can I make this oat stuffed squash vegan?

It already is, as long as your broth is vegetable. There is no cheese, no butter and no egg anywhere in it.

Can I freeze it?

Freeze the filling on its own and it reheats well. The roasted squash shell goes watery in the freezer, so roast that fresh.

How do I serve this as a main instead of a side?

Serve a full stuffed half per person, which makes four servings, and add a green salad. The carbohydrate and the calories both double when you do that, so check the panel against your own targets.

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Final Thoughts

A heart healthy side dish should not taste like a punishment, and it should not take the whole evening either.

Roast the squash, cook the oats, stir the rest together. Most of the low cholesterol side dish recipe happens while you are doing something else, and what comes out is a dish you can put in front of company without explaining yourself.