- Today, I'm making
roasted butternut squash. It's easy, but also the
leftovers taste good for breakfast the next day. So to get started, we're gonna
talk about butternut squash. Now, when I buy a
butternut squash, I buy it already
peeled and halved, you know, they come shrink
wrapped, because it's easier. It saves a bunch of time,
rather than having to peel and hack through the
thick butternut squash. But you don't,
however, want to buy it already cut up into chunks
because at that point, the squash is way too dry and it's cut into the
wrong size anyway. Now, if you do buy it and you see it's just
a little dry in spots, you can just easily
peel it on the outside, and this is a lot easier than having to peel
off that thick skin. And you want a whole
butternut squash, anywhere from three to
three and a half pounds. Again, you want a lot
because the leftovers, if you have any,
are really tasty. I know, I'm making a
mess with the peels. I always do this. Luckily they're
easy to clean up. Ooh, it smells like fall
when you smell this, like a pumpkin. Let's get a bench scraper
to help things along. My trim bowl, also
known as the dog bowl. If I make too much noise
with this dog bowl, my friends will come running, so I'll try not to clang
that around too much. All right, get that
out of the way. Now, for cutting up
the butternut squash, we're just gonna cut
it into 1/2" dice and I'll show you an
easy way to do that. So you can see there's
the solid part of the neck and there's this hollow part. That's where the seeds were. What you want to do is you
want to cut that right in half. Let's set the hollow parts aside and working with the
nice thick chunks, we're gonna make
1/2" thick planks. I like to stand it up. Cut right down through. You want a good
heavy knife for this. All right, now with each plank, just cut it into 1/2" strips, or thereabouts, rustic's okay. All right, so now that
I've got nice 1/2" batons, it's easy to cut into cubes. All right, so that's
it for the necks. Put them in a nice
big glass bowl so we can focus on the
bottom hollow parts, which you need to cut a little
differently than the necks. So I'm gonna go in and
I'm gonna make 1/2" slices And sometimes you
can cut it in half. It just makes it
easy to work with. So again, cutting slices
and then making a dice. So it's the same idea,
but you have to cut it from a slightly
different perspective. All right, now I'm
gonna line these up and cut them into, again,
about 1/2" rustic pieces. All right, this
is the last of it. All right, all done. All right, that is a
lot of butternut squash, which, again, I love 'cause
it holds like a dream after you've roasted
it in the refrigerator. Now I'm just gonna toss it with a tablespoon of
olive oil, thereabouts. A little bit of salt and pepper. All right toss that around. All right, so now we're gonna
put it on a rimed baking sheet and when it's on
the baking sheet, it gives you another
opportunity to toss it around to make sure everything's
coated with oil and evenly seasoned. Oh, yeah! Packing it in there. Oh, that looks good. So this is going into a
rippin' hot oven, 450 degrees, and it's also going
on the bottom rack. That means all that
heat will be focused on the bottom of the pan and that's how you
get nice browning. All right, takes
about half an hour. The butternut squash
has been in the oven for about 35 minutes. Oh, yes! And again, halfway through
I stirred it around. You can see it shrinks
quite significantly. Oh, when you see all that
browning around the edges? That is my favorite part. All right, so I'm just gonna
let this cool a little bit and as it cools, I'm gonna
sprinkle it with some za'atar. Now za'atar is a Middle
Eastern spice blend. It has some sumac and this has some thyme
and some sesame seeds. And you want to add
it to the vegetables after you roast them. It adds a lovely
zingy, citrusy flavor. And I didn't really
know a lot about za'atar before a few years ago, but now once you get
it in your house, once it's in your pantry, you're gonna find yourself
sprinkling this on everything. It even tastes good on cut up
watermelon or honeydew melon. So just a little bit sitting
on the hot butternut squash. Those flavors will start
to bloom and hydrate. And again, you don't
want to roast it. You want to put it on after you're done
roasting the vegetables. So we're gonna let this sit. Notice I didn't move
the squash around a lot when it came outta the oven 'cause it has a tendency
to stick to the pan. But now that it's cooled a bit, it's easier to scrape
them up off the pan because that browning on
the pan, that's good flavor. Oh, yes! All right, so now
they've all been freed. See, it's that browning. That browning, that's hard
to get on a butternut squash because it's so moist and
there's so much sugar in squash. That's why you have to
use a rippin' hot oven and that bottom rack in order to get some
of that roasty flavor. All right, so those have
been loosened from their pan. Now we're gonna make a quick
vinegarette to toss them with. Just some shallot
and a little lemon. That pairs lovely
with the za'atar. The shallot I'm
just gonna mince it or that you could slice it. Actually, I'm gonna slice it. The recipe says to mince,
but you can do either. I like the slices 'cause I think they
look pretty and elegant. So to slice a shallot, you
want to cut it in half, cut the tip and
the root end off, and I'm gonna slice it pole
to pole, or with the grain. That way you get
really elegant shards. So working with the
curve of the shallot. Angle my knife as I go around. Halfway through, I tip it
back over and I start again. All right, as thin as you
dare during the middle. And there you go. Second half. So again, I'm angling my knife
as I go around the shallot. Halfway through,
I tip it back over and then when you get to the
center, as thin as you dare. All right, I'm gonna
put this in a bowl. Gonna add just a little
bit of lemon juice, a couple tablespoons,
freshly squeezed, of course. Nothing beats the flavor
of a fresh-squeezed lemon. All right, that looks good. Maybe a little more. I want a couple tablespoons. That's good. These go right into
the dish disposal because that's how I keep
my sink smelling clean. Gonna add a little honey, just for a little sweetness,
about tablespoon or two. There you go. A little bit of olive oil,
two or three tablespoons. This is where you want to
bring out your good olive oil, not your cooking olive oil,
your good salad olive oil. And just whisk this around. Dissolve some of that honey. All right now to this we're gonna add the
roasted butternut squash. The pan's nice and cool,
so it's easy to handle. And just now that we freed
it from the sheet pan, it's easy to just let
them fall into the bowl. Now we're just gonna
gently toss the dressing with the roasted
butternut squash. Squash is very
delicate at this point and it could mush if you
handle it too firmly, so nice and gentle. Oh, these flavors! The za'atar, the lemon,
the little bit of honey. And to platter it, I'm gonna put everything on a
nice big family-style platter. I'm gonna put all
the butternut squash on one side of the plate. To finish off the squash, I'm gonna add some
pomegranate seeds. And you can buy these
already seeded nowadays, which I think is
such a time saver. Talk about convenience food! But of course, if you
get fresh pomegranates, pretty easy to
crack the seeds out. So if you can't find
pomegranate seeds, because sometimes
they're a bit seasonal, you can substitute blueberries. All right, we're gonna
add a few pepitas, salted and roasted. Oh, they add a lovely crunch. Last but not least, we're gonna add some
fresh leaves of parsley. No need to mince this up. Almost using them
as a salad green or a fresh garnish on the end. I love the flavor of
fresh parsley here with the za'atar
and the pomegranate. Plus it looks pretty. You can obviously
substitute other herbs here if you have them. Chives would be lovely. Cilantro would be wonderful. Even basil could work. Oh, perfect! Time to make a plate. I could eat this whole batch
of roasted butternut squash. This is one of my favorites. Mm! Mm hmm! Oh man, that's good. The za'atar has that
tangy sumac flavor with the pomegranate seeds. I could eat my own
weight in that. And there you have it. See you next time. Thanks for watching. What'd you think? Leave a comment below and let me know what you're
excited to cook this week. And while you're at it,
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