Everyone out there that loves sweet potatoes, raise your hand. Ok everyone that loves sweet potato fries, jump up and down. Man, am I going to make all of you happy.

Butternut Squash roasted with this magic sauce tastes better than either and is just as healthy. It’s a simple recipe that’s simply delicious.

Here’s all you need to get started.

Simple ingredients to make this delicious dish

First you need to peel the butternut squash. Make sure you have a good peeler, as squash skin is a bit tough.

Nicely peeled, now chop it up

Cut the squash in half, remove the seeds and cut into one inch squares. Don’t get obsessive about this, just try and have a consistent size.

Amazing how small it becomes

Make sure you get a really big butternut squash because you’ll wish you had more! Next mix up the rest of the ingredients and coat the squash.

It does take a bit of mixing to get it coated

Spray a roasting pan with non-stick spray and arrange the pieces in the pan so that the big flat sides ares hitting the pan. You want as much “charring” as possible.

Ready to put in the oven

Roast as indicated in the recipe below. It will begin to look like this.

Notice the “charring”?

Here’s the recipe and then I’ll show you the finished product.

The following recipe is from Kayln’s Kitchen which is a great food website for those of us watching our waists. Delicious dishes. Good food without sin.

Spicy Roasted Butternut Squash with Smoked Sweet Paprika
(4 to 6 servings – unless you consider it candy, like I do)

1 extra large butternut squash (about 8 cups)
1 tsp smoked sweet paprika*
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion salt
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Peel the butternut squash and cut into 1 inch cubes.

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a cups and pour over the squash. Mix it well. Toss either in the bowl or in a plastic bag. Spray a flat baking sheet with non-stick spray, then arrange the cubes in a single layer on the sheet.

Roast the squash 25 minutes and then flip the pieces as you want each cube nicely roasted. Kayln suggests using a fork to turn every piece. I don’t have the patience for this on the second step but I do it on the final step.

Cook squash an additional 15 minutes, pull it back out and turn again. Roast another 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your original cubes. Total cooking time will be about 40 to 50 minutes.

Dig in!

*There is a real difference in paprika. Regular paprika may be too strong for you. Sweet paprika is much better. I use a combo of both a sweet paprika and a smokey one that I was given as a present. It came from Spain. I use half and half of these two: Pimenton Picante de la Vera and Pimenton de la Vera. One is smokey and one is sweet. This website carries them. http://www.tienda.com/food/smoked_paprika.html You can find sweet paprika in better grocery stores.

And now, for the finished and delicious product. This is easy to make, absolutely wonderful and a perfect side dish to anything. Or do like I do and just eat this for dinner!

Yum – trust me and Very Best Friend – Double Yum!

Spreading laughter throughout the world…one chuckle at a time.

Mikie Baker
www.mikiebaker.com