Sweet with Heat Roasted Butternut Squash

This recipe give the butternut squash a hint of sweet with just a touch of real maple syrup. It also gets a little kick from chipotle chili pepper. Because the butternut squash is diced, it roasts very quickly, so all you have to do is the prep.

I am showing a photo here of 3 pounds of butternut squash. My family night dinners are for 7 people and some REALLY big appetites, so I’d actually TRIPLED the recipe that I will share with you here. I wanted to point that out, so that when you put your 16 oz (1 lb) of butternut squash on your pan, it’s not going to look like this photo! (You may want to double or triple it, too, while you’re at it, and do some serious meal prep!)

Last thing – if you really HATE the idea of prepping the butternut squash, many groceries have fresh diced butternut squash in plastic packages, in 16 oz size and ready for this recipe. You’ll pay more for that, but it would be FAST.

I peeled, scooped out the seeds, and diced 1 small organic butternut squash. It was 16 oz of diced squash.

I put the squash on a baking pan and added:

1 tsp real maple syrup

1/2 tsp melted coconut oil (you can also  use olive oil but I don’t like to cook with olive oil at this high heat)

I mixed this up with my hands and then spread it out evenly.

I sprinkled the butternut squash with:

1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder

1/4 tsp hickory smoked sea salt

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

(minced garlic is optional and also awesome on these)

I roasted them in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes.  (When I triple this recipe I cook them 5 minutes longer)

It’s so easy and it’s so worth it. We need to eat lots of different vegetables – they give us different nutrients. So, branch out and go for some color with this Sweet with Heat Roasted Butternut Squash. Here’s the #getmacroed information in case you’re tracking in My Fitness Pal.