Healthy & Delicious: Butternut Squash Apple Cranberry Bake
Editor's note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen!
[Photograph: Kristen Swensson]
You know the bible story about the loaves and fishes? I have a situation like that in my house right now, except it's the never-ending butternut squash. I estimated it to be around two or three pounds when purchased, but it's actually more like five or six. So much for skipping the produce scale.
Still, I'm not complaining. To date, the Infinity Squash (as we've come to call it) has fueled a wonderful Moroccan side dish, a risotto from Chez Panisse, and Butternut Squash Apple Cranberry Bake Adapted from Simply Recipes, the bake is a sweet seasonal twist on regular ol' starchy sides. Adults will love it, but if you have finicky kids, I bet a six-pound squash this dish will convert them into lifetime vegetable lovers.
To make the original recipe slightly healthier, I halved the sugar and dairy and maintained the original quantities of squash and apples. It created just enough butter sauce to coat the produce, and a quick stir before serving ensured every piece was sufficiently doused. With these changes, each sizeable portion came in around 215 calories, 6 grams of fat, and 4 grams of fiber.
Alas, the Bake finally finished off the Infinity Squash (making it the Finite Squash, I guess). It's okay, though. There's another one sitting on the counter.
Butternut Squash Apple Cranberry Bake
- serves 4 -
Adapted from Simply Recipes.
Ingredients
1 large butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 large tart cooking apples, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground mace (can substitute ground nutmeg)
2 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, flour, salt, and mace.
3. Place squash in an 8x8-inch baking dish. Top with apples and cranberries. Sprinkle sugar mixture on top. Dot with butter cubes. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour. Stir before serving, so squash and apples are sufficiently sauced.
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5 Comments:
By "large" - what do you mean? The squashes in my grocery store vary from small to what seems to me really huge. I'd like to make this tonight, and a little more precision would be appreciated. Thanks.
Likeswords at 3:39PM on 10/26/09
Likeswords, a 1-1/2 pound squash should yield the 14 or 15 ounces of produce you need to make the recipe work. Let me know how it works!
Kristen Swensson at 4:29PM on 10/26/09
There is no way I could get a large butternut squash in an 8x8 pan. A 9x13 might be stretching it! They got big this year!
That aside, this looks perfect! I have about six monsters in my garage, and no idea what to do with them- this one I may even get the kids to try.
ErikaWaz at 10:14PM on 10/26/09
Kristen, thanks! I wound up buying a "medium" size squash from among the choices at my grocer's, which came to 2.5 pounds, but I figured that I Iike squash and I don't know what to do with half of one, so go ahead! But I found that I wound up with about two layers of squash in the 8" by 8" pan (which I didn't change because I wanted the sauce and butter to cover the recommended area to be topped), and the middle layer didn't cook as well (it was good, but it didn't have the browning or the tenderness of the bottom layer). The apple layer and the cranberries were fine, as was the sauce. All told, it was very good and worth repeating. I served it with sweet Italian turkey sausages that I cooked in the oven with the vegetables for the last 20 minutes and browned off under the broiler, a fine flavor combination - maybe next time cook the sausages in with the vegetables? Altogether, a success.
Likeswords at 10:33PM on 10/26/09
ErikaWaz, I should have specified squash size in the recipe. Totally my fault, and I'll see if I can rectify it.
Likeswords, sweet! I'm glad it (mostly) worked for you. The sausage addition sounds heavenly.
Kristen Swensson at 12:17PM on 10/27/09