Conquering Vegetables #6.1 - Butternut Squash

One veggie conquered, nine more to go!

Thank goodness my friends Kassie and Rick decided to try being vegan for a month. It forced me to think about what I was cooking and definitely encourages the incorporation of more veggies. Like, lots of veggies. I'm no an expert on being vegan - I catch myself wondering if an egg baked in an avocado has any animal products - but I'm getting a little more adventurous because of it.

So one night I attempted roasting a butternut squash for a dinner with friends. This one wasn't vegan - it used butter and parmesan cheese - but it was damn delicious. The most intimidating part was learning how to cut open a giant butternut squash. This is easily overcome by searching YouTube for "How to cut a butternut squash." I found dozens of tutorials, but I liked this one the best. (This is the original site - I haven't taken a good look, but it all looks delicious!)

Taking what I learned from the original attempt (which, again, WAS DELICIOUS) I switched some of the ingredients - olive oil instead of butter, and I didn't mess with the bread crumb mixture this time.

So - step one, cut the damn thing open. You can see in my picture I eventually got fed up and just broke the two halves apart at the thin end. (And yes, I too giggle at the shape of the butternut squash.)

Step one-and-a-half - turn the oven on to 350-400ish. You might want to look that up.

Step two - smother in olive oil & salt & pepper. Just smear it all on there and shake the S&P to taste.

Step three - Bake! Place face down on a cookie sheet (I line mine with tin foil). It takes about an hour, or until you can jab your fork in and it doesn't stick.

Step four - Let it cool. The skin will probably be all bubbly and a little burnt, but generally the squash isn't. Once it's cool enough that you can handle it w/o burning yourself, the skin will peel right off!

Step five - slice and dice, and eat!

I put cubes of butternut and acorn squash on a spinach salad with crasins, black beans, and drizzled it with this vegan salad dressing which is kind of expensive but reeeeeeally delicious.

Ta-daaaaa! A completely veggie meal that I enjoy!

Chiggity-check #6.1!