I've come to expect a sweet vegetable dish at my holiday table, wether it's Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter. It is usually sweet potatoes but we decided to make mashed potatoes for Christmas this year so we had to find a replacement for our go-to. I'm fully aware of how ridiculous it sounds, but for some reason, I think it's weird to have two potato dishes in the same spread (i.e., mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes).
Roasted butternut squash is the perfect stand-in. The sweetness from the roasted squash is is cut nicely by the goat cheese. and the tarragon ads a layer of savory flavor you will appreciate. The second best part about this dish is that it is super quick to prepare. The best thing is how it tastes.
INGREDIENTS
FEEDS 6
- 1 peeled butternut squash cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch cubes
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar
- 1/2 stick of butter (4 tbsp)
- 2 tablespoons ripped tarragon
- 8 oz goat cheese
COOK TIME
Total: 40 mins
- Preparation: 10 mins
- Cooking: 40 mins
HARDWARE
- 9x9 baking dish
- cutting board / knife
- saucepan
- large bowl
- microplane
METHOD
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
- Melt butter and combine squash, brown sugar, 2 tbsp of ripped tarragon in a large bowl. Salt to taste (~1/2 teaspoon).
- Salt is often overlooked in sweet dishes but it is essential to helping our young pick of flavors including the sweetness in food. Adding a little salt in some cases may help you taking a little sugar out of your diet.
- Bake for 30-45 minutes until squash begins to caramelize. Once or twice through the cooking process, turn over the squash to ensure even baking and to coat the squash in the syrup that collects at the bottom of the baking dish.
- After removing squash from the oven, toss once more and crumble in goat cheese.
