Recipe: Vegan Roasted Butternut Squash

This past weekend, I was on a cooking and baking streak, so expect to see some recipes from me this week.  My favorite concoction, by far, was roasted butternut squash.

The original recipe came from The Post Punk Kitchen. In its original form, it was meant to be a topping for pasta, but I didn't feel like eating pasta and thought this little dish could make a flavorful vegan side dish.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash (or if you're lazy like me, a package of pre-cut squash from the grocery store)
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1-1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil - enough to cover everything
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (the kind you'd see in an Italian restaurant)
1 teaspoon fresh or dried sage (fresh gives so much more flavor!)

Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cut the squash into half-inch cubes, and mince the garlic into small pieces. 

3. Put the squash and garlic with the pine nuts, pepper, and sage into an oiled roasting pan and pour the olive oil over everything.

4. Stir ingredients, making sure squash is lightly coated with oil, garlic, pepper, etc.  

5. Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes.  (you want the squash to be soft, but still firm enough to be eaten with a fork and not a spoon.)

This is a ridiculously simple recipe that packs a lot of flavor.  In fact, maybe a little too much flavor.  As I've noticed recently, fresh squashes absorb flavor like nothing else, so a little less pepper and garlic would probably be a good idea.  At least a little less pepper if you're not into spiciness, like me.  (I blame my Irish roots.  I ate this squash and a Mexican snicker-doodle in the same day. My mouth still hasn't recovered.)  I hate feeling like a fire-breathing dragon after eating a meal. But if you're into that sort of thing, bring on the spice!