Behold! I bring you The World’s Best Squash Recipe!
I’ve been cooking up a storm this week and have made new recipes for pie (banana cream!), almond cake, sweet & sour shrimp, roast chicken, really good pasta with Italian sausage & peas, cookies, bread, soup…the list goes on and on…and what recipe am I the most excited about?
SQUASH!
I should add that I love squash – especially the hard, winter varieties like butternut and acorn squash. However, I’m a little of a squash purist in that my preferred method is to bake it in the oven and serve it very simply with butter and sometimes a bit of maple syrup. That was before I tried THIS recipe.
My friend Emily gave me this recipe last year. I can’t believe I waited this long to try it, but it’s clearly my loss since I could have been eating this for months now.
Here’s what you need:
Acorn or Sweet Dumpling Squash, Jalapeno Pepper, Garlic, Lime, Cilantro, Olive Oil, Salt & Pepper.
Click here for a Squash with Chile Lime Vinaigrette Shopping List
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
The original recipe is for acorn squash – that’s the hard, small, dark green variety – but I have a Sweet Dumpling which is similar but slightly bigger and slightly more sweet. They are also my favorite so I eat them weekly while they are in season.
Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. Use a sharp knife to cut down the ridges of the squash to make wedges.
On a foil lined baking sheet, sprinkle the squash wedges with salt, pepper, and 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil. Toss the squash around to be sure it is evenly coated in the seasonings.
Roast the squash in the oven at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and fork tender. Halfway through the cooking time, turn the squash over to brown both sides.
Meanwhile, to make the vinaigrette, mince one small clove of garlic and smash it on your cutting board with 1/2 teaspoon salt to make a paste.
Add the garlic/salt paste to a small bowl and squeeze in the juice of 1 lime.
Remove the seeds and membranes from 1/2 of a jalapeno pepper. This removes almost all of the heat from the pepper and leaves the great flavor. If you like things super hot, feel free to leave the seeds in or to use the whole pepper.
Chop 1/2 of the jalapeno into very, very tiny pieces and add them to the bowl.
Add 2 Tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro and 3 Tablespoons of olive oil. Whisk it all together to make a nice, green vinaigrette.
Remove the browned, tender squash from the oven…
arrange it on a platter, and drizzle with the chile lime vinaigrette.
I would plan on 1/2 of a squash per person unless the squash is very large or I am invited. In that case, I’m going to need my own squash.
Make this one ASAP. You won’t be sorry!
Here’s the recipe: Adapted from Gourmet via Smitten Kitchen and with many (albeit belated) thanks to Emily Brebach!
Squash with Chile Lime Vinaigrette
Note: You can eat the skin of the squash (Jim did) or slip the cooked squash away from the skin on your plate.
5 Responses
OHMYFORKING GOD CLAUDIA YOU TAUNT ME with this tastiness! Niiiiice….and beautiful too!
Claudia, I want Everything you cooked this week mentioned above! Jim is one lucky Dude!
This is on my bucket list….for this week!!! Looks delish!
XO
I’m making it again this weekend. I really don’t even care what else we have to eat. I’m happy to just have this squash.
Okay, I made this recipe but I used an unfamiliar squash – very pretty blue, maybe Mother Hubbard that the guy at the market said was the best for pies which probably should have been a warning that this type needs looks of dressing up to taste good. And when I tried a taste right out of the oven it was bland bland blah. NOT a sweet butternut. But I made the vinaigrette (with cippolini onion instead of garlic and only 1/8 of the jalapeno – which I roasted a little with tongs over an open flame – and some honey) and I gotta say, that was, just like you say, THE WORLD’S GREATEST SQUASH RECIPE!