What I Really Eat: Roasted Sprouts & Squash

Here’s my dilemma: It’s 8:05 on a Sunday night. I’ve just spent all day testing recipes and the majority, failed. Or it was all desserts. This means...I still need to make dinner without much time to make things or maybe even the will to make anything else more complicated.

On days like this I usually fall back on my lazy girl dinner, which is meatloaf. And my other secret weapon is the fact that, on Sunday mornings -- we eat bacon.

After I finally got my act together and learned that making bacon in the oven is actually, the best, I now always end up with sheet pan of bacon drippings on Sundays. This means that without fail, whatever languishing vegetable is in the crisper drawer gets tossed in a coating of bacon fat, salt, pepper, and whatever else seems like a good idea and thrown into the oven for 40 minutes.

This dish is salty, spicy, and a bit sweet --- the sprouts get crispy, the squash rings chewy --- it is all the things. I’d love to tell you I made a beautiful roasted chicken or perfectly seared steak to go with these.

But what I really did was #putaneggonit. (and it was glorious.) 

Welcome to “What I Really Eat”, the series.

Now this is not to say that I wouldn't routinely eat the things I post up on here. If I've spent Sunday testing something that we can eat for dinner, then of course, that’s what’s on the table.

"What I really eat" are my "Iron Chef" meals. My pantry meals. Shit, my fridge is empty meals. The things that come out of necessity and lack of time. The ingredient list will usually be small and the execution usually simple. Something that is less of a recipe and more of a guideline. If something exceptionally awesome comes out of my Sunday night scramble, it will get posted as a “What I Really Eat” and probably be accompanied with a not-my-best photo.

We can’t have it all.

---

Roasted Sprouts & Squash

Ingredients:

1 pound brussels sprouts, halved

1 to 2 delicata squash, sliced into ¼ inch rings -- seeds scooped out

drizzle of olive oil or if available bacon grease

1 tablespoon of maple syrup

chili powder to taste

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

On a large sheet pan that has hopefully been recently used to cook bacon, spread out the squash rings and sprout halves evenly. (If bacon grease is not available, just drizzle well with olive oil)

Drizzle 1 tablespoon of maple syrup over vegetables, then season with salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste. Give the vegetables a quick toss to coat in the syrup, fat, and spices.

Roast in the oven for approximately 30 to 40 minutes, tossing occasionally so the veggies caramelize evenly.

Serves 4 as a side

Monday Market Haul - 1/5/2015

Shhh...I totally know it’s Tuesday.

Bah! New, New Year’s Resolution! Be more consistent here.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to get going, especially when it’s not a recipe post, but rather showing you all the amazing things I dragged home from the market. I might’ve hit that winter slump I had been worried about since I started this seasonal eating mission.

It was bitter cold at the market on Saturday. And everything was just sorta gray and sad and many vegetables looked downright frostbitten. I came home with a few apples, some very scraggly carrots, and not much else inspiring.

I miss summer.

The weekend itself was super cold and dreary and also not so inspiring. My new year’s kick in the ass slowly seemed to wither away.

But then, yesterday, my lovely boyfriend and I started our morning by watching the first montage sequence from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (his idea.) The one where he runs off to his first adventure after a life of not really doing anything else. That is inspiring. That got my day started off on the right foot. That sequence is how I want to start all my days. Anything is possible.

That ricotta went into something pretty inspiring. Are you ready?

I am.

Spicy Delicata Hummus

I promised you hummus yesterday.

I give you hummus.

Late. But better late than never.

How convenient that during my mediterranean craving craze I stumble across a recipe for squash hummus on my ever-favorite website: Food52.

I had stumbled across other chickpea-less recipes a long time ago, but I remember them calling for zucchini and that just always seemed to me a possibly very watery alternative.

Using hard squash though, I could see how that would work!

It did not disappoint. I switched up a few things here and there to my tastes, but it’s a pretty PERFECT alternative to traditional hummus. Depending on the flavoring, people won’t even know the difference. (Tested on real live co-workers!)

a revelation

Can we just talk for a moment about roasted garlic. I mean, how have I not been doing this...forever. I've heard about it, and I may have actually encountered it that one time when I lived with a chef...but I've decided that it now needs to be something I do on a weekly basis.

Goodness, would you look at that?

Tomorrow, I’ll give you something to schmear it on.

---

Spicy Delicata Hummus

adapted slightly from this recipe at Food52

Ingredients:

2 pounds delicata squash (2 to 4 squash depending on the size)

1 head garlic (intact)

¼ olive oil plus more for roasting squash and garlic

overflowing ¼ cup tahini

1 chipotle pepper (and a dash of the sauce in the can if so desired)

squeeze of half a lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Slice your squash in half and scrape out the seeds. Drizzle the insides of the squash with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place the squash cut side down on a sheet pan and place oven. Roast for approximately one hour or until squash is soft when pierced with a fork.

At the same time you are roasting the squash, slice off about the top ¼ inch of a head of garlic. Grab a piece of aluminum foil and place your head of garlic in the middle. Drizzle the exposed garlic cloves with a bit of olive oil and then wrap up the head in the foil and place in the oven to roast until soft when pierced with a fork. The cloves should look caramelized. This will also take approximately one hour.

Once you’ve removed the squash and garlic from the oven, allow them to sit until they’re cool enough to handle.

Using a blender or food processor, scoop the roasted squash out of it’s skin directly into the blender cup or processor vessel (I used my nutribullet to great success.) Next, squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins as well and into the vessel. You should be able to just pinch the bottom and they’ll sort of ooze out.

Add the remaining ingredients, and then blitz until everything is fully combined. Scrape out into a bowl. Taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least three hours before serving.

Serve with whatever you please! I snuck some warmed pita, and also schmeared it all over cauliflower falafels.

Makes about 2 cups