Butternut Heaven

Recently I fell in love with food magazines. It was a torrid affair until my husband stepped in and intervened by telling me I could only get one subscription for Christmas. I love the pictures and the recipes. The articles enthrall me and I even enjoy reading the ads (most of them have recipes!)

Each time I get a new one, I do a quick read though to get the landscape and see what’s there. Then over the course of 3 or 4 readings I go through each recipe and dream about shopping for it, cooking and eating it. Once I have ingested the whole issue cover to cover, I tear it apart and take the recipes I want to cook and put them in my “recipes to try” cook book.

It was a hard decision which magazine to get. I spent the last couple of months buying Gourmet, Food & Wine and Bon Appetite every month, perusing them leisurely and trying their recipes. I finally came to the decision that I wanted Food & Wine and this decision was largely based on the following recipe.

Curry-Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpeas


Ingredients
• 1 large butternut squash - peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch dice
• One 19-ounce can chickpeas— drained, rinsed and dried
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoon mild curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 containers plain fat-free yogurt
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro or parsley
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375°. In a Ziploc bag, toss the butternut squash with the chickpeas, olive oil, curry and cayenne and season with salt and pepper. Spread the squash cubes on a large rimmed baking sheet and roast for 40 minutes, or until tender.

2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir the yogurt with the cilantro or parsley and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

3. Spoon the roasted butternut squash and chickpeas onto a platter and drizzle with 1/2 cup of the yogurt sauce. Serve the remaining yogurt sauce on the side.

This recipe is so fantastic! I have made it for people and given the recipe out and everyone loves it. This is slightly modified from the F&W recipe. I like more spice, so I double it for both the cayenne and curry powder. Also the recipe calls for cilantro in the yogurt. JR hates cilantro so I made it with parsley which is really nice.

I made this last night and am eating the leftovers as I write, and I am in butternut heaven.