November 02, 2008

Playing Recipe Matchmaker


I had a butternut squash sitting in the fridge forever while I figured out what it would make a good side dish for. And it sat. And sat. Because I make a lot of one-pot meals that don't need a side dish. Side dishes are for meat eaters.

But then flipping through one of my favorite cookbooks it occurred to me to make two side dishes together as the meal. So the pairing begins...! This butternut squash recipe is sweet, creamy and lovely. Since broccoli rabe has that distinct bitter flavor I thought the two would go well together. Sort of balance each other out. Both are easy to prepare, I just made the squash first, broccoli rabe second, and used the same pan in the interest of washing fewer dishes.

Both recipes from 3 Bowls: Vegetarian Recipes from an American Zen Buddhist Monastery.

Tahini Butternut Squash and
Broccoli Rabe with Ginger, Honey and Lemon

In the interest of full disclosure I'll mention that I scooped out my butternut seeds and had every intention of roasted them to sprinkle on top of this meal. Unfortunately I turned my back while they were in the toaster oven and they burned to a crisp. A chef, I am not.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

butternut squash is not my favorite, i must say. but it's good with ravioli... also i'm wondering why you didn't just put it with the broccoli rabe in one dish? :)

Michelle said...

Well, wasn't sure about tahini and brocolli rabe together. The tahini was really amazing on the squash though!

Lori said...

This sounds great. The flavors seem like they would go together well. I love tahini too, what a great idea having it with b-nut squash.

Darya Pino said...

This looks delicious and I love tahini. Did you ever figure out an easy way to peel that squash? My knuckles always hate me afterward, so I have been avoiding it.

Michelle said...

@darya--sadly, no, but butternut is one of the easier squashes to peel. As far as chopping the darn thing in half, I've been recruiting my husband for the job! He pounds on a cleaver with a meat mallet.