Recipe: Spicy Roast Squash

This recipe is adaptation of something I had the a Sunday Night Dinner in Astoria a couple weeks ago. I tried it out at the last potluck party I hosted and think I did a pretty reasonable job replicating it. I am listing the approximate quantities of the ingredients I used. This will serve about 20 so feel free to cut down as necessary. Also, if you want to just make it for a few people, the original recipe called for acorn squash so you can just use that and use the squash itself to provide individual serving bowls.

Ingredients:

• 2 large acorn squash
• 1 huge butternut squash
• 1 normal sized calabasa squash
• 3-4 tsp of dried oregano
• 2-3 whole dried chili’s (about 1.5″ long usually)
• 1 8oz jar of sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
• 2-3 tsp of freshly ground coriander seeds
• 3 small pickled hot peppers from a Greek market (more on this below)
• a tablespoon or two of brown sugar
• 3-4 tsp of cider vinegar
• olive oil
• the juice from 2 lemons
• salt & pepper to taste
• feta or some crumbly goat cheese

You are basically making a paste, roasting the squash, and then roughly smashing it up. The pickled peppers were something that Tamara just got from her local market that she used and happened to have extra. I wouldn’t know where to even find this next time so you can just leave it out. It does give the spice puree a nice tang though so feel free to replace it something something else. The most important thing is to taste the spice level of the puree before while you are assembling it. It should be a nice balance of sweet, spicy, and acidity with whatever level of cinnamon you like.

Steps:

1. Cut the tops of the acorn & calabasa squash and scoop the seeds out. Half the butternut squash and do the same. (note: When picking butternut squash, I try to pick ones with a smaller bulb at the bottom so I get more flesh and less seeds for my money)
2. Make a puree with all the rest of the ingredients except for the lemon juice & the cheese. Taste it while you are adding the pepper, cinnamon, vinegar, sugar, etc. It should be well balanced.
3. Rub the inside or bottom-side (for the butternut) of the squash with the puree and roast with the caps on or skin-side up (for the butternut) at 350 for an hour or when the flesh is soft and can be scooped easily with a spoon.
4. When it is done, let it cool so you can handle it, scoop out the flesh, and mash it up with some olive oil and some of the lemon juice. Taste it as you add the lemon juice so it doesn’t become too acidic or sour.
5. Season it with salt if you need to.
6. Drizzle on some crumbled goat cheese and serve.

Don’t forget to add the goat cheese. I forgot that part at my potluck party, and thought it was much better the next day when I added the cheese to it.

I have photos up of most of the process except (unfortunately) the actual squash themselves.