Roasted Squash Moons
We’ve all eaten enough fancy food this holiday season, can we get together on that point?
If and when it’s ever time to refuel again, our household is heading for clean and simple dishes. Foods that are as straightforward and easy to prepare as they are nourishing and nice to look at. If these foods are also full of antioxidants, fiber, anti-inflammatory compounds, and built-in blood sugar control, I just might come back to the table.
There’s a long list of winter vegetables I do not peel. I never peel carrots, beets, or potatoes if they come from our farm or another farm I trust. By eating the skins, you keep those vital nutrients out of the compost pile, and into the mouths of those nearest and dearest to you. It also deletes one of the more time-consuming and tedious aspects of vegetable preparation, and if you’re cooking with plenty of whole foods, that matters.
This New Year season, I would like the world to know that the shortest distance between a whole winter squash and supper on the table is a tasty little number called Roasted Squash Moons.
You skip the process of roasting them whole, which cuts down cooking time and keeps the skins intact. I know it’s hard to accept, but winter squash skins are completely edible. Varieties like red kuri have very thin skins that are scarcely perceptible. Varieties like buttercup and acorn squash have a little more texture, but we’re into that, and the contrast of the dark skins with the orange flesh of the sqash is nice looking.
Roasted Squash Moons
1 winter squash
1 pint of onions
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
a couple tablespoons oil for roasting
a scattering of herbs is nice, but optional
Get out a cutting board, a spoon, and your sharpest, sturdiest knife. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the whole squash in half (prime meridian, not equator.) Scoop out the seeds. Lay the flat side of the squash down, muckle on, and slice the whole thing up into thin little moons.
Lay the moons out on 2 cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, sprinkle them with salt, and toss them with any kind of oil you like. Bacon fat is exquisite. You can also choose to minimize the oil you’re using by appying it with one of the nifty little oil sprayers out there.
And then just close the oven door for 30 minutes or so.
The onions will roast more quickly than the squash, so give the squash a good head start before adding them. I don’t stir the squash moons around once they’ve started baking, but I do rotate the baking sheets once I’ve scattered in the onions.