We can’t let the season pass without a pumpkin recipe! Pumpkin has made a dazzling display this year, debuting in everything from beer to doughnuts. One recipe recently caught my eye, Pumpkin-and-Turnip Green Lasagna, from Southern Living Magazine, October 2015.
Lasagna? Now pumpkin seems to be truly found in every place! With a few tweaks to the ingredients, this recipe can pair Bible plants with the season’s sassy squash and give us food for thought while cooking dinner.
Tasty Trio: Leeks, Onion, Garlic
We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.
Numbers 11:5 NIV
Leeks, onion, and garlic lend a savory dimension to pumpkin’s modest flavor, and return us to the humorous reminder, “No Crying Over Onions,” a devotion on Numbers 11:5 in God’s Word for Gardeners Bible. This mantra makes light of the not-so-humorous proclivity to complain and wail about the demanding conditions which often accompany a time of waiting or wandering.
Numbers 11 is a difficult story and a dark moment in the lives of God’s people; the verses in these chapters I’d rather gloss over, except that the flavorful Bible plants keep me coming back! Complaints, frustrations, grumbling against leaders, threats of death, plagues–ugh! Not much here to rumble the appetite.
But better to confront the tendency to complain and submit this failing in ourselves to God’s work than to let it lurk in our being and cause greater disruption, even death, like the meat-cravers suffered in verses 33 and 34. After all, the Sinai Desert landscape is all about exposure, laying open the motives of our heart to the bright, inescapable light.
…wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV
After the Israelites’ departure from Egypt, miraculously delivered from slavery, the people revered God and declared their trust in him (Exodus 14:31). But did they really trust him? God used the glaring light of the deserts of the Sinai Peninsula to test them and expose the motives of their hearts (1 Corinthians 4:5).
–from “Testing, Testing, 1-2-3,” Sinai Desert devotions, God’s Word for Gardeners Bible
The Sinai Desert wandering seems like one of the “oldest stories in the book,” yet it happens in my heart almost every day. I can start a journey to a new work excited by a dramatic display of possibility–a new project to complete, a new garden to plant, a festive holiday to plan–only to lose touch with the vision, derailed by setbacks, disconnected from motivation by mundane irritations.
All of this from a Pumpkin Lasagna Recipe?
In our time-stretched lives, the opportunity to remember God’s story and grow into it must be tucked into snippets of time where it can. What better place to regroup with God than in the everyday routine of making dinner?!
But thanks be to God, who always puts us on display in Christ and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
2 Corinthians 2:14 HCSB
Pumpkin & Dandelion Greens Lasagna Recipe
adapted from Southern Living magazine, October 2015
Brown in deep-sided skillet:
3 T. olive oil
1/2 C. diced leeks
1/3 C. chopped onions
4 cloves fresh garlic, crushed
1 lb. ground turkey (unless you have quail meat!)
Once cooked through, add and simmer for 3-5 minutes:
2 T. chopped hyssop leaves (substitute: basil, oregano, or parsley)
1/4 C. coriander seed, grounded in mortar & pestle, sift to remove hulls
Juice of 1 lemon (preferable Meyer lemon)
You will need additional 1 T. hyssop leaves for top of lasagna
Then stir in and heat through:
1 C. pureed pumpkin
1/2 C. water
salt & pepper to taste
Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Leave drippings in skillet.
Next, add to skillet and simmer for 8-10 minutes:
3/4 C. water
4 C. lightly packed chopped dandelion leaves (substitute: mustard or turnip greens)
1/4 tsp. salt
Meanwhile, in second bowl, mix:
12 oz. cottage cheese
2 C. shredded mozzarella
2 eggs, beaten
You will need additional 3/4 C. mozzarella and 1/2 C. Parmesan for top of lasagna
Preheat oven to 375°
To assemble lasagna:
Coat 9 X 13 cooking pan with olive oil cooking spray.
Line bottom of pan with row of oven-ready lasagna noodles. Pour in liquid from cooked dandelion greens. Spread over noodles a layer of pumpkin-turkey mixture, then a layer of greens, then a layer of cheese mixture. Repeat. Finish topping with a 3rd layer of noodles, and cover with additional mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, and sprinkled hyssop leaves.
Cover pan with foil. Place on cookie sheet in case of spill-over. Bake at 375° for 45 minutes. Uncover foil and bake another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 15 minutes before serving portions.
Serves 6 to 8.
But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.
John 3:21 The Message
Plant God’s Word in your garden! Discover more about growing these ingredients in our Plant Guide:
Olive Oil, Leeks, Onions, Garlic, Hyssop, Coriander, Dandelion
Photo Credits: ©2015 Shelley S. Cramm
A serving of Pumpkin & Dandelion Greens Lasagna poses with a pumpkin and dandelion leaves
L-O-G Leeks and onions are from the grocery store, but the garlic was grown and harvested this summer, so delicious! Treat yourself to homegrown garlic, this is a hardneck, producing one larger clove, German Red from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds
This pair of dandelions thrive persistently in my garden: It’s true, they will grow back from even a small piece of root left behind. Better to cook them up, then!
Arrange a layer of cooked dandelion greens between the pumpkin-turkey mixture and the blended cheeses
