Butternut squash has become a new favorite vegetable of mine this autumn. I’ve found so many uses for this vibrant orange beauty – it is perfect in baked goods, roasted in the oven, blended together with some plant based cream for a creamy pasta sauce, or as fun spaghetti sautéed lightly in olive oil. That’s what happened today: butternut squash spaghetti salad with herb pesto.
One of the staples in our kitchen is pesto: green, yellow, red, white – we’ve tried them all. Our pestos are almost never the same as I vary the recipe according to what’s available either in our own garden or our frigde. This pesto was inspired by the last fresh parsleys and cute baby kale leaves from our garden and roasted butternut squash seeds. I never let these lovely seeds go to waste, as I’ve written also in this post.
Butternut squash is not only a great vegetable for it’s versatility and flavor, I simply love to use it as a bowl for serving food. My son is crazy about fruit bowls and the first time he saw my butternut squash bowl, it was love at first sight.
This recipe is featured on Freefromheaven
- [b]Salad[/b]
- 1 butternut squash
- 2 cups kale leaves (4 big leaves)
- 1/2 tbsp Extra Virgin olive oil
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- pinch of salt
- [br]
- [b]Pesto
- [/b]
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1/2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup cashews
- 3 tbsp oven roasted squash seeds
- 3 tbsp parsley
- 2 small kale leaves
- 1/4 tsp quality salt
- 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tbsp water (or more if needed)
- Preheat oven 200C/390
- [b]Roasting the squash and seeds:[/b] Wash butternut squash and cut it in half.
- Deseed squash. Wash seeds well in a sieve and remove orange stringy bits. Pat seeds dry and put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Prick one half of the squash with a fork and put it in the same baking sheet as the seeds cut side down.
- Roast seeds for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
- Roast squash in the oven for ~45 minutes until soft.
- Prepare the salad while the seeds and pumpkin are roasting.
- [b]Butternut squash pasta salad:[/b] cut the other half of the squash into thin pasta stripes (spiralizer would be great too).
- Wash kale leaves and cut into stripes.
- Cut garlic into tiny pieces.
- [b]Pan fry:[/b] add olive oil to the pan and fry butternut squash pasta stripes and kale stripes for a few minutes in medium heat until the stripes soften a little.
- Take off the heat, put into a bowl, add salt and lemon juice and mix well.
- [b]Herb pesto:[/b] cut garlic into tiny pieces and pan fry it for a while in olive oil. Pour oil and garlic into a blender and blend all pesto ingredients until desired pesto consistency reached. Add more water or lemon juice if needed.
- Mix 3 tbsp (or to taste) pesto into the bowl with butternut squash and kale and toss well.
- [b]To serve:[/b] carve out the oven roasted squash and fill it with pesto salad.
- Serve with pesto on the side.
- Buen provecho!
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