Try this delicious squash pie as a side for Thanksgiving

When a friend initially asked me to try this squash pie, I took a pass. It was served as a side dish, and it wasn't something I thought I would enjoy. Luckily, she persuaded me to taste it. After one bite, I fell in love with it.

It is now a staple at my large holiday dinners, a favorite side dish for Thanksgiving.

During the past five years of making this squash pie, I have tweaked the recipe to make it easier and healthier (for example, I use whole-wheat flour and less sugar than the original). I hope you and your family love it as much as we do.

I like to make this with whole-wheat flour, but you can use any flour in this recipe.

If you cannot find the frozen winter squash, Whole Foods carries a canned organic butternut squash that can be used instead. The squash soufflé will be a bit denser, and you need to increase the cooking time to 1 hour. I have used this canned butternut squash before, and it's a great substitution.

Happy Thanksgiving wishes to you!

• Karen Nochimowski, the mom behind mommachef.com/, has loved cooking for as long as she can remember. After friends and family begged to be let in on her culinary secrets, she decided to create a blog featuring the easy, quick recipes that everyone loved. All Momma Chef recipes are made with 6 ingredients or less and under 6 minutes of prep time. The goal of Momma Chef blog is to help busy moms serve fabulous meals with little effort and few ingredients. Karen also started and runs Momma Chef's Soup Kitchen and Momma Chef's Little Free Pantry, which provides food at no cost to those in the Chicago community.

Squash Pie

10- to 12-ounce package frozen cooked winter squash (defrosted and drained)

½ cup whole-wheat flour

1/3 cup sugar

3 eggs

¼ cup softened margarine or melted coconut oil

1 graham cracker pie crust

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, blend together the drained squash, flour, sugar, eggs and softened margarine until well blended.

Pour the mixture into the pie crust.

Bake uncovered for 45-50 minutes until the top is firm and brown.

Notes: If you want to make this recipe gluten-free, you can use ½ cup of any 1-for-1 gluten-free flour and omit the graham cracker pie crust. I would then increase the sugar to ½ cup since you will be losing the sweetness from the crust.

Serves 8

Karen Nochimowski