Roasted Squash

madnad

This an extremely easy recipe, and is also a great introduction to cooking with squash for those that have not cooked with it before.

Squash, when raw, is incredibly hard so you need to make sure your knife is sharp (but watch those fingers, m’kay?). However, when you cook it, it becomes soft and sweet. It’s natural sweetness is really brought out by roasting which makes it the perfect accompaniment for meats, especially red meats, but I even like it with chicken.

Once roasted like this it needs nothing more doing to it, and you can happily serve it as a side dish. Alternatively, you can add it to a soup for extra texture and flavour.

For this recipe I used Queen Squash, but you can use any pumpkin or squash variety you can find or prefer.

Roasted Squash

Ingredients

  • 1 Winter Squash (any variety)
  • Olive Oil
  • Sea Salt
  • Ground Black Pepper
  • Fresh Sage (roughly diced)
  • Ground Cinnamon

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC / 350ºF / Gas Mark 4
2. Peel the squash, then halve it and scoop out the seeds
3. Cut the squash into slices or good sized chunks
4. Place the squash on a large baking tray and drizzle with a little olive oil. Toss the squash with your hands so that each piece is covered
5. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper then scatter the sage
6. Give a very light dusting of ground cinnamon
7. Cover the squash with foil, then bake for 30 minutes or until the squash is soft
8. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes until crisp and starting to caramelise
9. Serve as a side dish with meat, in pasta or in soup

Note

For a spicier version, instead of cinnamon, try sprinkling a little cayenne pepper before roasting


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