Roasted Winter Squash With Hot Honey Butter
Merry Christmas week everyone! Here is an easy and delicious holiday side dish that requires minimal prep that you can make all season long. This recipe makes extra hot honey butter but I am sure you won’t complain, it is so good spread on toast or other roasted veggies.
Simply roast the winter squash, skin, seeds and all. While squash roasts, make the hot honey butter by stirring together butter, honey, and hot sauce of choice. This recipe makes more hot honey butter than you will likely use, save it to use on toast, roasted vegetables, or more squash! Once squash is fork tender, remove the seeds and pop back in the oven topped with hot honey butter until nice and toasted. Top roasted squash with seeds once they are done, and top the entire dish with as much hot honey butter as you wish!
Cooking Tip!
Did you know the skins of many winter squash are edible? Many people fight with these tough fall/winter vegetables to cut, skin, and remove seeds however it isn’t necessary at all! I love to leave the skins on when I roast squash as they become a lot more tender and most are easy to eat after roasting. If you find that the squash skin is still too tough, just easily scrape the flesh away from the skin with your fork or spoon after roasting. Certain squash that you wouldn’t eat the skins are spaghetti squash or butternut. Winter squash are also round and/or odd shapes that makes them difficult and even dangerous to cut. Place the flattest side of the squash, or create one using your knife or potato peeler on the cutting board. Don’t immediately apply as much pressure as you can to the top of the squash, this is when they roll and your knife can slip quickly becoming a hazard. Slowly rock your knife back and forth on the squash until you cut into the squash, applying a little pressure. You will slowly but surely cut through the flesh of the squash. One amazing tips for extremely large squash from on of my favorite food bloggers Andrea Bemis from Dishing Up The Dirt is to drop them onto a hard surface like concrete so that they break up in smaller bits much more manageable to cut.
Nutrition Tip!
Pumpkin, and other winter squash seeds are one of the best dietary sources of magnesium. Magnesium plays many important roles in the body such as muscle and nerve function, protein synthesis, blood sugar control and blood pressure regulation.1 Other important functions of magnesium include synthesis of DNA and bone structure development.1 The majority of magnesium in our body is stored in our bones and levels are tightly regulated by our kidneys. Many winter squash have seeds similar in taste and texture to pumpkin, try roasting with topped with hot honey butter for an easy snack, topping for salads, soups, or the squash itself!
Roasted Winter Squash With Hot Honey Butter
Ingredients
- 1 large winter squash (such as buttercup, kabocha, acorn, or delicata)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- Pinch salt and better
- 1/2 cup salted butter, room temp
- 3 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp hot sauce (I used Aardvark habanero hot sauce)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 F.
- Carefully cut squash in half, do not remove the seeds or peel. Cut squash halves into 1/2 inch crescent shapes, cut crescents in half for larger pieces. Add to a rimmed baking sheet and toss with olive oil. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper each.
- Place in oven and roast for 20-25 minutes, removing sheet pan from the oven halfway through cooking to flip squash.
- While squash is cooking, make hot honey butter. Add butter to a small microwave safe bowl. Add honey and hot sauce. Start to mix with a fork. Mix as well as you can, but if it still seems a little chunky and not completely smooth, place in the microwave for 10 seconds (not longer!). This will help soften the butter just enough to let you mix until smooth.
- Once the squash are done, remove from the oven. Use a spoon to separate the seeds from the squash. Remove squash to serving dish while keeping most of the seeds on the baking sheet. Put a few dollops of hot honey butter on the seeds and place back in the oven to roast for 5-10 minutes, or until desired doneness. Add 1 tsp pats of hot honey butter all over the squash. Once seeds are cooked, remove from oven and top the squash with them. Serve with extra hot honey butter.
Notes:
Hot honey butter recipe from Bon Appetit https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/hot-honey-butter.
This recipe makes extra hot honey butter. It is delicious spread on toast or other roasted vegetables.
References
Office of Dietary Supplements - Magnesium. (n.d.). Retrieved December 22, 2020, from https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
