Roasted Delicata Squash

Not familiar with delicata squash? It's one of my favorite winter squashes - and it's incredibly easy to prepare! As you can see it's a smaller squash and it's a creamy yellow color with green stripes. Best of all, the skin is very tender and thin so you can just eat this entire thing with no need to peel like you would need to do with butternut or acorn squash. The flesh inside is yellow, a bit more delicate than it's heartier cousins, and quite sweet when roasted. What's not to love? In the past I've served it stuffed (you can see in the picture to the right that it makes convenient boat-shaped vessels when cut in half) but here I just roast it, letting the natural flavors shine.

I served this with some salmon topped with freshly cracked pepper (black and pink just for fun) and cous cous, but this versatile dish will go with nearly everything. Or - stuff it with a whole grain, dried fruit, and nuts and make it a stand-alone vegetarian meal.

Time: 35 min


Roasted Delicata Squash

Ingredients:
2 delicata squash
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper

Get your oven pre-heating to 400 degrees. Wash your squash well - since you eat the skin you want to ensure it's clean! Cut the very top with the stem off and then cut the squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out and discard the seeds.

Drizzle the olive oil in the bottom of a glass baking dish and tilt back and forth to coat evenly. Sprinkle the black pepper evenly on the 4 squash halves (use less or more black pepper as desired). Place the squash, cut-side down, in the glass dish.

Bake for 25 minutes. Carefully flip (it'll be tender!) and roast for another 5 minutes. Enjoy!