Stuffed Squash blossom Stir Fry is an easy light meal featuring harvest time vegetables and squash blossoms! The squash blossom filling adds goat cheese, herbs and sun dried tomatoes for a pleasing combination of flavors and textures you are sure to love.
Welcome to our Tuesday in the Garden Blog Hop! This week our theme is garden to table recipes. Please Click on the links at the bottom of this post for every garden blogger in our group. You will be amazed at the knowledge they bring from years of gardening in USDA garden zones from all over the county!
Our garden is SO late this year! We had a very wet cold spring and Dave had a very busy work schedule too. He planted in late May and June this year. Our tomatoes and peppers are Just getting ripe over two months late. We have really missed ripe tomatoes and peppers in June from his greenhouse. We have been spoiled in the last several years.
After our wet cold Fall, our weather flipped upside down. We have had a VERY hot dry summer here locally. Even June, usually rainy for us, dried up. So…What a lovely summer for us!!!
Our garden has done really well even getting a late start. However, Dave is planting MUCH less this year to give himself a break. Our 2015 and 2016 gardens were ridiculously overstuffed and he was out there in the garden constantly tending it.
Unfortunately, our squash always fell victim to mold and mildew. Our squash crops were small and stunted:(
Not This year!
The 2017 Garden
Our squash is doing EXCELLENT this year. Our dry summer kept the mold and mildew at bay so our squash is growing properly for the first time in years!
We took a tip from our fellow blog hop gardener friend Michelle over at Simplify Live Love and it paid off in massive squash growth! Michelle wrote a post last year called How to Grow A Three Sisters Garden. The method and results were so interesting I wanted to try it.
Dave agreed to plant our butternut squashes under his corn but he left the beans on his (already built) beanpole. The results speak for themselves. You can see how well the squash grew under the corn. The corn is also weed free. Dave hates weeding his corn so that is a big plus too! Thank you Michelle!
NOW…what to do with all that squash!
I have never cooked with squash blossoms before. I was photographing the pretty yellow blossoms emerging in huge quantities all through the zucchini, butternut and pumpkin patch and realized some of those blossoms could be picked and not missed this year. Come to find out if we pick only the male flowers the squash crop is not hindered at all!
So one day I started filling my pockets with squash blossoms. Dave was so confused. After I explained my plan he got into the spirit and we both came to the house with bulging pockets of squash blossoms. I laid them out on my harvest tray. Now what?
TIPS for washing the blossoms:
First thing I did was wash them. Teeny tiny bugs were all over them. weirdly the bugs were not eating the blossoms that I could tell. They seemed to be interested in the gender parts but were all over the blossoms.
Those bugs are the Dickens to get washed off! Fortunately the blossoms are tougher than they look and will withstand some abuse. Here’s how to wash them.
- Unfurl the blossom end.
- Remove the pistils and stamens before washing. Try not to rip the blossoms but if you do just use them anyway and fold the ripped blossom around the stuffing it will be fine. It might work best to remove the gender parts while under running water of even in a bowl of water to float the blossoms and reduce ripping.
- Soak the blossoms in salt water about 20 minutes to float off what bugs you can. These bugs are tough! They would not drown and many survived the salt too. Sheesh!
- Finally came down to hand work. Hand pick the remaining teeny tiny bugs and squish em in your fingers. They are so small it’s the only way 🙁
Once cleaned, the blossoms dried on paper towels. Then I removed them to our harvest tray and set them out on our porch. And then I thought up this recipe.
Stuffed Squash Blossom Stir Fry Recipe:
I wait all summer for recipes like this one. I dreamed up this stuffing from what was in my fridge and off I went. And it is AMAZING! A Perfect harvest meal. The hardest part is cleaning the blossoms. Make time to wash them ahead so they can dry before stuffing.
My visiting girls ate it for lunch and loved this recpe. I served it to Dave for dinner. He loved this flavorful healthy meal, and I love it. Pretty sure you will too. If you are a gardener you have most everything you need already. LOTS of veggies and squash blossoms:) Otherwise, find a good farmer’s market or local CSA.
Yeah, it’s a stir fry which is sort of a jumbled mess. But I could not keep my fork out it!
A lot of people put a coating on the blossoms and fry them. That’s not my thing. I don’t do fried anything mostly. The blossoms were great just stuffed and steamed on top of the stir fry. No extra steps. An easy one pan meal. That’s how I like to cook 🙂
If you purchase items from our affiliate links we may receive a small commision at no extra charge to you. Thank you for supporting Homemade Food Junkie.
Instructions:
PREPARE THE SQUASH BLOSSOMS:
Remove the stamens or pistil from the blossom centers (Try not to rip the flower)
Carefully wash out any tiny bugs on the flowers
Drain the flowers on paper towels then outside in the sun laid flat on a tray, (or your counter).
MAKE THE STUFFING:
Stir together the squash blossom stuffing. Set aside.
STIR FRY:
on medium low heat in 12 inch skillet
add bacon cook 5 minutes covered
stir the bacon and add DICED onion and garlic. cook 3 minutes
add remaining SMALL CHOPPED veggies. Cover and cook 5 minutes covered.
MEANWHILE, STUFF THE BLOSSOMS:
Put the blossoms on top of the stir fry and cook another 10 minutes covered.
Serve with sour cream for garnish if desired.
Stuffed Squash Blossom Stir Fry
A delicious way to enjoy squash blossoms. The flavorful stuffing in the blossoms compliments the bacon fried veggies for a delightful lunch or light harvest meal.
Ingredients
- 24 squash blossoms. Washed and dried. Stamens removed
STUFFING INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 Cup Goat Cheese -room temperature
- 1/4 Cup sun Dried Tomatoes
- 1 Tablespoon chopped jalapenos
- 1/2 tsp/ Italian seasoning
STIR-FRY INGREDIENTS
- 6 slices bacon
- 1 red onion
- 4 clove garlic minced
- 2 cups fingerling potatoes-chopped
- 1 cup green beans-chopped
- 2 cups zucchini-chopped
- 1 Cup sour cream for garnish as preferred
Instructions
- PREPARE THE SQUASH BLOSSOMS:
- Remove the stamens or pistil from the blossom centers (Try not to rip the flower)
- Carefully wash out any tiny bugs on the flowers
- Dry the flowers on paper towels
- MAKE THE STUFFING:
- Stir together the squash blossom stuffing. Set aside.
- STIR FRY:
- on medium low heat in 12 inch skillet
- add bacon cook 5 minutes covered
- stir the bacon and add DICED onion and garlic. cook 3 minutes
- add remaining SMALL CHOPPED veggies. Cover and cook 5 minutes covered.
- MEANWHILE, STUFF THE BLOSSOMS:
- Put the blossoms on top of the stir fry and cook another 10 minutes covered.
- Serve with sour cream for a garnish as you prefer.
Notes
The prep time is all in the squash blossoms. Leave enough time to let them dry out after washing. If you have trouble with the bugs not coming off. Soak the blossoms in a salt or vinegar water. One tsp. to one quart water ratio and let the blossoms soak 20 minutes.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information
Yield
8Serving Size
1 cupAmount Per Serving Calories 268Total Fat 17.6gSaturated Fat 9.3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 43mgSodium 415mgCarbohydrates 15.3gFiber 2gSugar 2gProtein 12.2g
OUR GARDEN BLOG HOP! Please click on every link and find more delicious Garden to Table Recipes!
If you enjoy this article please share it with your friends. And browse our gardening section for more helpful garden tips and Tuesday in the Garden Blog Hop Posts!
Stephanie H.
Saturday 16th of September 2017
What a great idea! Looks delicious - can't wait to try!
Angie
Monday 11th of September 2017
I've never cooked with squash blossoms, but now I really want too! Looks so yummy Diane. I've always wanted to try the Three Sisters method. Glad it worked out for you this year :)
Diane
Monday 11th of September 2017
Me too Angie. I hope you get to try the sisters method of gardening. the squash really loved it. Those squash blossoms are fun to cook with. I'm looking forward to more squash blossom recipes.
Shelly
Tuesday 5th of September 2017
It's so great that your planting technique really did well. But sorry to hear those bugs were so hard to get rid of. They sound like they were determined to stay.
I've never had squash blossoms but it does sound like something we need to try. All those flavors sound like they would be delicious togehter. Does the squash blossoms taste like squash? If you mentioned it above I must have missed ti.
Diane
Tuesday 5th of September 2017
You know, I never did get much of a flavor from the blossoms. The stuffing was definitely the star. This recipe works so well because the flavorful stuffing is marvelous with the stir fry. The blossoms sort of hold it all together.
Jami
Tuesday 5th of September 2017
How wonderful that your new planting technique paid off - and what a great way to use up things we normally throw away!!
Michelle
Tuesday 5th of September 2017
Three cheers for the Three Sisters Garden! I'm so glad it worked out for you, Diane. You don't know how happy it makes me to read that. :-) I also think it's probably easier to trellis the beans separately. I'll probably do that next year when I have a decent garden again. Your recipe sounds delicious. Maybe one of these days I'll have squash blossoms again and can give it a try.
Diane
Tuesday 5th of September 2017
We are delighted with the results Michelle! It's been many years since our squash have looked this happy and prolific.I love reading your Three Sisters post. It's a good story and great gardening tip!