Here is an easy seasonal side fit for a Thanksgiving feast – or just a regular dinner! or maybe even a stand-in for home fried potatoes at your next fall brunch? Delicious bright orange, earthy-sweet winter squash oven roasted with purple onion, seasoned with wonderful savory notes of cinnamon, paprika and fresh thyme. Serves 5-6 as a side dish. Plus, a bonus recipe for roasting those delightful pumpkin-like seeds, which make a wonderful snack or garnish! And that’s not all folks – stay tuned for my next post, which will feature a handy recipe for using the leftovers, if you have any!

Ingredients:

Two large winter squash (I used a butternut squash and a carnival squash – other good options include acorn and delicata squash)

One medium sized purple onion

4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp sweet paprika

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 400F. Peel your squash.

Start cutting them, scooping out the innards and reserving the seeds in a small bowl. Cut your squash into about 1 inch cubes and place in a large baking dish. Chop the onion into 1-inch chunks (the layers do not need to be fully separated) and add it in. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle on the thyme leaves, paprika, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Toss to coat evenly.

Roast for about 30 minutes until all the squash is softened and edges are just turning golden. Your kitchen will smell heavenly!

The bonus part: while your squash is roasting away, discard any mushy squash guts attached to the seeds. Put the the seeds on a small foil lined baking tray (I borrowed the one from our toaster oven). Drizzle with a little olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground black pepper and lightly toss to coat. Put in the oven with the squash for about 10 min until you start hearing the seeds popping like popcorn and they are nice and toasty but not burnt. Yum yum!