Thursday, December 22, 2011

Roasted Butternut Squash with Apples and Cranberries

For today's Christmas party, I was asked to bring a warm vegetable. I really didn't want to go to the store, so I just used things I had at home. This dish looks like Christmas and smells amazing!


Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
2 large Honeycrisp apples
1/2 bag of fresh whole cranberries
Honey
Cinnamon
Butter
Lemon juice
Apple juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel, de-seed, and cube butternut squash, peel and cube apples, rinse cranberries. Toss apples with lemon juice to reduce browning. Melt about 1/3 stick of butter, then add in a few tablespoons honey, and cinnamon. You can adjust how much of this you use to taste and depending on how big a dish you make.

Toss butter mixture with apples and butternut squash. Spread apples and squash on a baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes. You are looking for a golden caramelized color.

Next, I put the apples and squash into a casserole dish and added a little more of the honey-butter mixture. I added in the cranberries and a couple tablespoons of apple juice (just didn't want my apples and squash to stick to the casserole dish) and cooked covered with foil for about 15 more minutes. (Variation: I bet some chopped pecans or other nut would taste great with the honey-butter mixture, sprinkled on top at this point, they would be like candied nuts)

Smells delish! We will see how it goes at the party.

Update:  It went over well at the party, and tasted a little like the warn insides of a pie.  Since the dish was done before it was time to leave for the party, I just left it covered in the oven with the oven set on warm... this made everything all soft, so if you are looking for a crispier outside, take it out of the oven after it is finished.

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