Roasted Butternut Squash

One of our favorite ways to prepare starchy vegetables is to oven roast them.  Butternut squash, used in this recipe, grows well in north Texas but you need a large garden area to accommodate it.  We planted butternut squash, spaghetti squash, pumpkin, and a new variety of winter squash called orangetti in a 20 x 20 foot section of our garden.  They all grew together and expanded out of their area!  Growing winter squashes is extremely economical - once harvested, they can be stored until spring (or until you eat them all!) and they are a great savings since they are expensive to buy.  We also enjoy butternut squash in stews, such as Dudley's Calabaza Stew.

Ingredients:

1 medium to large butternut squash (peeled and cut into cubes)

2 Tbl extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbl balsamic vinegar

1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped

sea salt, to taste 

freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 °C.  Cut the ends off the butternut squash and then peel the outer skin off the butternut squash (we use a heavy duty carrot peeler).  Next cut the peeled squash in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp.  Cut the remaining squash into bite size pieces.

Place the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together.  Add the cubed butternut squash, and toss until all pieces are coated.  Then place the squash cubes in an oven baking dish, single layer thick.  Bake in preheated 400 °C oven for 40 minutes.  Remove from oven and enjoy as a side dish with your meal.