Squash Nachos with Ground Meat and Cashew Butter

I know I know, you're probably thinking "this chick has gone off the rails" 😆...but hear me out because this combo was legit AMAZING!! 😋

I'm in Boulder, CO visiting my team and we had a bunch of local ingredients including a ton of kabocha and delicata squash 😍 as well as a few pounds of ground bison in the fridge.

So, I was trying to come up with a simple meal that we could incorporate all of these things into, and of course, Squash Nachos (aka SQUACHOS) made the most sense 😜

It was absolutely DELICIOUS 🔥🔥 and will definitely be added to my meal rotation back home!

Ingredients

• Winter squash of choice (I used Delicata and Kabocha)
• Ghee or butter
• Salt
• Cinnamon
• Ground meat (bison, beef, chicken, turkey, etc.)
• 1 Onion, chopped
• Spices of choice
• 2-3 tablespoons Cashew Butter (or other nut or seed butter -- peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, tahini, etc.)
• 1/4 cup water
• Dash of salt

Instructions

For the Squash:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cut the squashes in half and scoop out all of the seeds. Place them face up on a baking sheet/s and rub a bit of ghee or butter on the flesh of each squash. Sprinkle with salt and cinnamon and then turn them over so they are flesh-side down on the baking sheet/s.
3. Pop the squash in the oven and cook for about 40 to 55 minutes, or until you can easily poke a fork through the flesh of each one and the skin is soft. (Cooking time will vary depending on how big the squashes are and the Kabocha may take a bit longer than the delicata).

For the Meat:

1. With about 10-minutes left on the squash, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add in your ground meat, chopped onions, and spices of choice - I used salt, pepper, cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg (trust me).
2. Break up the meat with a wooden spoon and saute everything until the meat is browned and the onions are soft, about 7-10 minutes.

For the Sauce:

You can't have nachos without some sort of sauce or melted cheese right?? Well, we had neither of those on hand and the only "sauce-like" thing I could find was cashew butter in the cabinet. So I made a cashew butter drizzle.

1. In a small saucepan over low-heat, add the cashew butter, water, and salt.
2. Mix it really well until it's incorporated and then continue to add a few tablespoons of water in increments, stirring really well each time, until it reaches a consistency that you can easily drizzle.
3. If it looks clumpy, keep stirring vigorously!

SQUACHOS Assembly:

Cut the squash into pieces, layer on some of the ground meat/onion mixture, drizzle the cashew sauce on top, and serve with choice of veggies on the side.

Notes:

You can totally mix up the type of ground meat you use, swap in a different type of nut or seed butter (peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, tahini, etc.), and even swap the squash for potatoes...the possibilities are endless 😎