Spicy Roasted Butternut Squash

We bought way too many perishables on our last trip to Costco, so one of the major projects this week has been figuring out how to use up all of the produce before it goes to waste. For that reason, one of the first things I made this year (on New Year's Day!) was spicy roasted butternut squash. We bought pre-cut butternut squash instead of a whole squash for convenience, and the label gave it a "use by" date of January 2, so it had to be used up ASAP. I looked up various spice combinations that might work for butternut squash, we chose one, and then it was time to roast! (I honestly have no idea where this came from to refer you; I was just jotting spice names all over my notebook.)

Ingredients:

Ingredients (other than the squash)

- 1 lb of butternut squash ($3)

- Olive oil ($0.10)

- Cumin ($0.10)

- Chili powder ($0.05)

- Smoked paprika ($0.05)

- Red pepper flakes ($0.05)

- Salt ($0.05)

- Pepper ($0.05)

I didn't measure out any of the spices and it was all to taste, so I'm just estimating the cost at around $3.50. The cost is pretty much the squash plus a negligible amount for the spices and oil. We had two sides at dinner that night, and this made enough for two people for that dinner with a little left over for me for lunch the next day.

Process:

Roasting butternut squash is really easy. It's so simple that I'm not sure why this is the first time I'm doing this. What took the longest was chopping up the butternut squash into bite-size pieces.

1. Chop butternut squash.

All the butternut squash chopped up... this recipe used half of it

2. Place butternut squash in baking pan and top with spices of your choosing (here, I used cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper) and olive oil. Mix it all together (I find it easiest to use my hands) and spread evenly in the baking pan. (I always spray the baking pan with cooking spray before doing anything.)

Topped with spices and olive oil, prior to mixing

3. Bake at 375 degrees until squash has softened. I set the timer for 15 minutes since many of the sites I looked at had the squash roasting for 30+ minutes. I figured that at 15 minutes, I would stir it around a little bit and put it back into the oven. But when I pulled them out, they were really soft. Much quicker than I thought it would be. Maybe it's because they were pre-cut.

Review:

This was the full portion of butternut squash that the recipe made

This dish was simple and quick to make. We liked the spice combination and thought it worked well with the squash. The butternut squash was a little on the soft side and some of the pieces mashed up when I was stirring it around, so I might roast it for a little less time in the future so it's not quite so soft. The spices gave it a bit of a kick and we really liked it. We would make this again, with this spice combination or others. So easy!