Too often, harried and hungry, I'lI hack some poor vegetable apart, add too much olive oil, and roast it up with wildly varying degrees of success.
Other evenings, there's time to slow down and think things through. Time to get the oven nice and hot. Time to slice my vegetables uniformly. Time to roast them, carefully turn each piece, and roast some more.
On these nights, which are too rare, we have a really nice vegetable side like this roasted butternut squash. It's tossed with olive oil, salt, Aleppo pepper, and fresh thyme, and roasts in the oven for a good while. In the oven, butternut squash will get a bit soft at first, but as the moisture cooks out, it puffs up and gets crispy. The sugars seep out and caramelize in the heat. It's really a nice way to eat squash.
While the butternut squash roasts, make whipped feta. Creamy and bright, it's a robust counterpoint to the smoky sweetness of the squash. Both elements are best with some spicy heat. I used mild Aleppo pepper flakes for flavor and more assertive red pepper flakes for all-out heat.
This mix of squash and whipped feta would be quite good with a golden roasted piece of dark meat chicken alongside and maybe a few green olives. If your salads are feeling blah, a swoosh of something tangy is an excellent way to improve all kinds of salads.
I will also mention that a certain squash-heavy holiday is just a month away, so you know, maybe make this then too?
Roasted Butternut Squash with Whipped Feta
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Right Now to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.