Roasted butternut squash/ Roasted winter Squash

Butternut squash is a delicious winter vegetable belongs to pumpkin family (cucurbitaceae) . This vegetable with a sweet & nutty taste makes it best suited for roasted squash, soup , casseroles, breads & muffins. They can be used to make typical Indian dishes such as sambhar which tastes similar that of pumpkin. This winter squash  is also called as butternut pumpkin or gramma in Austraia & New Zealand.

This is good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin A & C, minerals such as potassium, magnesium. I recently tried making this cinnamon roasted butternut squash for the first time with the butternut squash grown at my father in law’s farm. We liked it as a starter , which you can serve as side dish too. There can be multiple variations possible to the recipe with the spices as you like. I am sharing the recipe with basic ingredients which you can tweak as you like. I roasted the squash pieces in oven for 30 minutes and browned them in a wok later. I prefer the pan / wok as I use a microwave with convection mode which takes longer to roast the vegetables.

 

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

Butternut squash – 1 (Cut into thin slices of 2 inches length after removing seeds)

Salt – to taste

Black pepper corns – 10

Ghee/ coconut oil – 2 tsp

Cinnamon powder - 1 pinch

Jaggery powder - 1 tsp (optional)

Chopped nuts of choice/ white sesame – 1-2 tsp (optional)

 

Method:

• Wash butternut squash, Cut and remove stalk part. Cut it lengthwise and remove seeds completely.
• You can scrape out the skin a bit, which I always avoid to do.  I try to keep the skin of vegetables intact wherever possible to retain some of the nutrients.
• Slice the Squash as you like and cut to get 2 inches long pieces. You can also make cubes/ or roast 2 halves straight away after Marination. No hard core rules out there.
• Take the cut pieces in a large, wide bowl.
• Sprinkle salt, pepper powder, cinnamon powder and jaggery powder which is optional.
• Drizzle oil/ ghee and combine everything very well.
• Now, you can roast it in oven or in a wok/tava.
• If using oven, 
• then preheat it for 200 deg celcius.
• Meanwhile, in a baking square tray, spread a baking sheet and arrange the seasoned squash pieces evenly.
• Roast it for 30 – 40 minutes or until they turn slightly brown.
• Keen an eye after roasting for 25 minutes, avoid burning. The timing may vary oven to oven.
• Or if using pan,
•  then take tsp of oil/ butter in pan and heat it.
• Roast the squash pieces until they are done , that is soft & slightly brown as in pic.
• Transfer to the serving bowl, top it with roasted nuts or with roasted white sesame for enhanced flavor.

 

Notes:

• Optionally you can sprinkle the vegetable with ¼ tsp Garam masala .
• Spices like Coriander and/or cumin powders (½ tsp) can be used as you like (optional).
• You can use sugar instead of powdered jaggery (½– 1 tsp) while roasting. Or you can avoid it completely.
• You can roast other vegetables like carrots and make glazed carrots by adding little jaggery or sugar to caramelize while roasting.