Roasted butternut squash with sweet spices, lime and green chiles

This dish is about the fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas, when there are an abundant variety of pumpkins and hard squashes in the market. You can use any variety including butternut, kabocha, delicata, sugar or any variety that you like.

The roasted pumpkins are soft and tender and wonderfully spiced with the cardamom and allspice, Mediterranean warming spices, and the dish is brought alive by the tart yogurt sauce and the bright and spicy jalapeños. This bites are addictive. I serve these most often as an appetizer, but they work just as well as a side.

This cookbook was the first one in my Ottolenghi collection, I now have all the others, and it brought to my table beautiful flavors and opened my mind to great recipes. Most of the recipes are simple, but each dish is fabulous. I have cooked more than half the recipes from this cookbook, I do need to post from here more often.

For more fabulous recipes from this cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb butternut squash, or any variety pumpkin, including some hard squashes

1 lime

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon ground allspice

Salt, to taste

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

2 1/2 tablespoons tahini

1 tablespoon lime juice

Salt, to taste

2/3 cup cilantro, minced + some for garnish

1-2 green chiles, jalapeños or serranos, thinly sliced

Heat the oven to 400 F.

Cut the butternut squash, or other pumpkin in half. Remove the seeds and cut the pumpkin into 1/2 inch slices or half moons. If the skins of the pumpkin is soft, no need to peel them.

Toss the pumpkin with the olive oil, cardamom and allspice powder and salt, making sure the spices evenly coat the slices.

Lay the pumpkins flat in a single layer on a lined baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, till the pumpkins are roasted and soft. Remove and cool.

While the pumpkins are roasting, mix the yogurt, tahini, lime juice, and cilantro. Taste and adjust salt and herbs.

To serve, lay the cooked pumpkin slices on a platter, drizzle the dressing over the pumpkins and add the sliced green chilies on top. Dress with the cilantro and serve.