Delicata Squash-I bet you've never heard of it!



Delicata Squash



So this week in my CSA box I received a Delicata squash. It is an amazing creamy delicious little squash. It is similar to a butternut squash but a lot easier to deal with. Thus I think it is much better than a butternut.

Butternut's tend to be huge with thick skins and can be a pain when you have to hack it apart. Since our family is so small this smaller squash is perfect. Plus it is so creamy after cooking!

With this sweet delicata squash all I had to do with it was wash it, chop it, scrape out the seeds, slice it and bake it. So easy! 

Roasted Delicata Squash Recipe
Serves 2-4 as a side dish

Ingredients:
2-4 delicata squash, depending on size
2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Clean the delicata squash by running under warm water and scrubbing away dirt with your hands. If there are any hard spots on the squash, scrape them off with a butter knife.

With a sharp knife, cut delicata in half lengthwise. This should be easy and not require any crazy hacking, wacking or knife smacking. With a spoon scoop out the seeds and discard (you can save these and prepare them like pumpkin seeds to put in your granola).

Cut each delicata half into 1/2 inch segments, creating moon-shaped pieces with slight bumps around the curve.

Arrange the pieces in a single layer in a metal baking pan and coat in 2 tbsp olive oil. Too much oil can make the squash soggy. Salt gently. It’s okay if the pieces are a little crowded, but try to maximize the surface area of the squash touching the pan. The browning only occurs where the squash and pan meet.

Place in oven and roast 10 minutes. Using a spatula (I use tongs for most veggies, but delicata squash are easily squished and it can be tricky to flip them with out compltely squishing them.) Turn the squash in the pan so the light sides are now touching the pan and the brown sides are facing up.

Continue roasting, turning every 7-10 minutes until both sides of the squash pieces are golden brown and when poked with a fork the texture is creamy, all the way through. It should take about 25-30 minutes total.

Serve as a side dish with the rest of your dinner. I served mine with barbequed chicken drumsticks and salad!