Caramelized Winter Squash and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Cilantro

Tonight's Supper utilized 5 CSA ingredients: 2 butternut squash, 1 acorn squash, cherry and heirloom tomatoes, green bell pepper, and cilantro.

I worked from the caramelized butternut squash recipe I tried here, but I made some improvements.

Ingredients:
2 small butternut squash
1 acorn squash
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp melted butter

I had 2 butternut squash, one from last week and one from this week. I cut the ends off, peeled them with a knife, and cut them into one inch square chunks.
I had one acorn squash. All the internet recipes say to cut these in half, leave the skin on, and roast them that way. Since I had the butternut squash I decided to cut the acorn squash into one inch chunks as well. This was much easier said than done. I would not recommend it. In the end the recipe came out great, but boy did it take me awhile to break down this acorn squash and get the rind off.

I put the chunks into a small roasting pan lined with foil, and tossed salt, pepper, 1 tbsp of brown sugar, and 2 tbsp of melted butter in until the chunks were well coated. I cooked it at 400 for 30 minutes, stirring the chunks every 10 minutes.

I think I finally perfected this recipe. There was just the right about of sweetness to bring out the natural flavor of the squash, and there was not too much butter as there was last time. This is seriously a nice warm, comforting, savory dish, it is a great way to feel more in the season for Halloween and Thanksgiving even though it is still 80 degrees outside.

For the roasted Cherry Tomato recipe, I used these ingredients:

roughly a dozen cherry tomatoes with a few small heirloom tomatoes thrown in
1/2 a very small onion sliced very thin
1/4 medium green bell pepper
handful of cilantro
salt, pepper, olive oil

First, I lined a small roasting pan with foil. I sliced the 1/2 onion very thin. I cut up 1/4 of the green bell pepper into very small chunks. I put the onions and bell pepper chunks into the foil lined pan, drizzled a little olive oil on top, and salted and peppered the mixture. Then I tossed it all around so that the vegetables were well coated with seasoning and oil.

I roasted this mixture in the oven at 400 for 10 minutes. Then I added the tomatoes (after I washed them and took the stems off) and mixed well. I roasted the mixture with the tomatoes for another 15 minutes, or just until the tomatoes start to crack.

Then I put the mixture in a serving dish and tossed in a handful of cilantro.

In the end, I had two beautiful side dishes:

These two dishes go really well together in a meal. The acidity of the tomato dish is a great balance to the richness of the winter squash.

I added a few slices of leftover chicken from Wednesday, and had a very nice supper!

Here is what I have left from the CSA delivery: green beans, a few tomatoes, beets, and turnips. I also have the Kohlrabi from last week. Later in the weekend, I will make a succotash with the beans and tomatoes, and add a little corn from the grocery store. I think I will roast the beets, turnips and Kohlrabi together, but I have not totally decided about that dish yet.