Who doesn’t love a good, cozy bowl? This one will fill you right up with beans, quinoa, roasted butternut squash, and a creamy, dreamy, slightly peppery pesto. The three year-old I care for during the week gave this dish two thumbs up and described it as “magical.”  (Okay, so she may or may not have had princesses on the brain.)
*The recipe makes about 1 cup of pesto, a little more than needed for this dish. Enjoy any left-overs on sandwiches, sweet potatoes, scrambled tofu, or pasta.

For the arugula pesto:
2 cups arugula
½ cup chopped pecans
1 clove of garlic
1½ tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ cup olive oil
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt and black pepper, to taste

Use a food processor fitted with a steel blade to process the arugula, pecans, garlic, lemon juice, and a bit of salt and pepper, until relatively smooth, scraping the sides as needed. With the machine running, slowly pour in the olive oil. Add the nutritional yeast, and pulse to combine. Taste for seasonings and adjust as necessary.

Everything else:
1 cup quinoa (dry measure), cooked
1 medium butternut squash, cubed and roasted
1 cup cooked/14 oz rinsed and drained can of beans (borlotti, chickpea, great northern, etc.)
couple handfuls of arugula

When the butternut squash is fresh from the oven, toss it with the beans. Or, if the squash has been made ahead of time and has cooled down, gently reheat it with the beans on the stove for a few minutes, until hot. Serve squash and beans over quinoa with pesto spooned on top and garnished with a few arugula leaves.

Yield: About 3 servings.