Garlic-Cinnamon Acorn Squash
This could also be made as a dessert if you hold on the garlic and up the ante on the sugary stuff. The squash keeps very well and is equally good cold. If serving as a leftover, I would recommend mashing the squash while it’s still warm and storing sans shell. If serving immediately, serve in shell. The only reason I recommend storing the leftovers without the shell is because it’s easier to eat cold and the squash gets to sit mixed up in the oils, but I’m sure both ways work equally well.
Ingredients:
- Acorn Squash halved with seeds removed (save the seeds and bake them in the oven for a snack)
- Olive Oil (use butter if you’re not opposed to dairy, more fat = more flavor)
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Fresh Thyme
- Garlic
- Salt
- Balsamic vinegar
- pepper
Directions
Halve the acorn squash and scoop out the seeds (for a quick snack, wash and bake the seeds with olive oil or some spicy garlic salt like Tony Chachere’s).
Drizzle olive oil in the squash and mash a small amount of garlic (maybe half a clove) into each. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, fresh thyme, dash of cinnamon and nutmeg. Lastly sprinkle a few drops of balsamic in the squash (balsamic makes things sweeter).
Bake at 450 for 1-1.5 hours, basting the squash with the olive oil mixture that melts in the bottom of the squash. The idea is to keep the flesh of the squash from drying out. Cook until you can stick a fork easily in the flesh of the squash. Remove from oven. When the squash is cool enough, mash it with the olive oil mixture. Eat from the shell.
QUICK VERSION
If you’re running short on time, or are hangry and need a snack, throw the squash in the microwave for 8 min with plastic wrap on top.
Sweet Version
If you’re non paleo or prefer a sweet and savory version, add some brown sugar (my favorite), agave nectar or honey.
