Butternut Squash

We had never eaten butternut squash before I embarked on this cooking adventure.  Then on day, my wife had lunch out with friends and had a great roasted vegetable soup that she really liked.  I looked on the internet and found a recipe that I made that uses butternut squash, sweet potatoes, parsnips and carrots, but that is a topic for a another post.

Recently while we were working out (it seems to be a recurring theme of working out while watching cooking shows!), I saw a show about a quick side dish made from baked butternut squash and arugula.  It was very interesting as they lightly coated the butternut squash with real maple syrup before cooking (we see a lot of maple syrup used in cooking competitions).  The butternut squash salad looked good so on my next trip to the store; I purchased a nice sized butternut squash so we could make this recipe.

Well time slipped by and I didn’t make that recipe, so a few nights ago while the glazed chicken thighs were cooking, I decided to cook the butternut squash.

I peeled and sliced the butternut squash into one inch cubes and placed them in a large bowl.  I poured about two tablespoons of real maple syrup into the bowl also a little salt and fresh ground pepper then stirred to mix.

I poured the coated pieces onto a cookie sheet that was lined with parchment paper (this was recycled from another recipe).  Once the chicken pot came out of the oven, I lowered the temperature to 350 and put the squash in to cook for thirty minutes.

It came out nicely cooked and smelling great.  We were full from the chicken thighs and parsnips, so I cooled the squash and placed it in the refrigerator.

For dinner last night we each had a bowl of reheated butternut squash (we had the remainder of the chicken thighs and parsnip mixture earlier for lunch).  It made for a very filling meal that was delicious.  My wife did give me some feedback for next time I cook the squash this way – “NO PEPPER”.  I hear her and next time there will be no pepper added to the squash.

The butternut squash is easy to cook and make a great side dish, or even a light meal.