Roasted Spiced Delicata Squash

Like with zucchini, you can eat the skin of the delicata squash, but just wash the squash well. To my knowledge (ah oh, we're in trouble), delicata squash don't get really large like some other squash varieties, and when I have bought them, they were all similar in size (see photo of a whole delicata, below; I put my cellphone in front of it for comparison). Good as an appetizer, a side dish or as a snack.

Ingredients:

2 delicata squash, halved, seeds removed, the halves sliced into 1/2 inch pieces

3 or 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (for drizzling over the squash)

2 to 3 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 to 1 teaspoon ground red pepper, depending upon your preference for heat, but you can leave it out

Wash the squash well and dry them. Cut the squash lengthwise and remove the seeds, then slice each half into about 1/2 inch pieces (kind of like half moons). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and begin heating the oven to 400 F. Then place the squash pieces on the baking sheet. Make sure each is lying flat, no overlapping, just a single layer. Slowly drizzle the olive oil over the squash to make sure each piece of squash gets a little of the oil. Sprinkle the salt over the squash pieces. I use a storage container with a snap on lid for this next part, but you can use a bowl. Add the dry spices, snap on the lid and shake (ah, I mean, shake the spices, but you can shake too, if you'd like), or if you're using a bowl, stir the spices and mix them together well. I just use my hand to sprinkle the spice mix over the squash. Just make sure your hand is totally dry, or the spices will stick and your hand will quickly become a candidate for the next "dry rub barbecued hand party." Although you may win the "Gotta Hand It To You Award." Roast the squash for about 25 minutes, or until they are a little browned, but nice and soft in the middle.  

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Drug-First, "drug" is used "by some English speakers" as the past tense form of "drag," but likely many scholars do not accept it as being a part of standard English, as "dragged" is the accepted standard form. Regardless, "drug" is used by some, although I believe is was more commonly heard when I was a kid and teenager in the 1950s and 60s. There is an expression used when someone makes an appearance unexpectedly, especially if they haven't been seen for awhile, and that is, "Look what the cat dragged in," but years ago if someone, especially a guy, had been out drinking for a long period and he returned looking messy and red eyed, you'd often hear someone say, "Look what the cat drug in." The main forms of the word "drug" is the noun (for a substance used as medication or as an illegal substance, often addictive) and the verb (used to indicate the administering of a drug to someone to put them under the influence of the drug to limit mental and/or physical performance). The noun and verb forms are actually pretty close relatives of English "dry" ("dry" once had a "g" in it), see further. The noun came to English via French "droge," which meant, "a substance used to treat a medical condition." This was a borrowing by Old French from Dutch "droge," which meant "dry" ("droge" was a relative of English "dry," a word from the Germanic roots of English), and French speakers seemingly mistook the first part of the Dutch term "droge ware/waere," meaning "dry wares," as the word for substances used for medical treatments, especially when that belief was reinforced by the Dutch term "droge vate," meaning "dry vats/barrels." In the first instance, the "wares" were often dried plants and herbs often used in making various medications in those times, and in the second instance, in trade, those dried plants/herbs were often stored in vats or barrels. English borrowed the word in the late 1300s from French, originally as "drogge." The verb was coined in the early 1600s.