Roasted Kabocha Squash, w/ Kale, Shiitakes

What is Kabocha squash you may ask? ( I did.) That's what the internet is for! "A relative newcomer to the US squash scene, Kabocha squash (pronounced kuh-boh-cha) is a hard winter squash available from late fall to late spring. Its hard, dull, bumpy dark green shell is marked with pale celery green striations. It's rather heavy for its size (usually 2-3 pounds) and has a stumpy grayish colored stalk. Kabocha squash has a brilliant yellow-orange flesh, like a pumpkin's. Both the texture and flavor of Kabocha squash is similar to a sweet potato: the soft, moist, fluffy flesh is surprisingly sweet and slightly nutty."

And there you have it!

Anyhow.....

Finally got tired of staring at the Kabocha squash from the asian market. A quick look through the cupboards and refrigerator to see what needed to be cleaned out provided enough inspiration for this quick (once the squash was roasted) dinner. It all came together quickly, no pretty presentation here. Kale quickly become my favorite green where it gets tender but doesn’t lose all its texture. And its dirt cheap!

First, I split the squash, scooped out the seeds, cut into chunks and roasted. Looking forward to roasting this squash skin-on as in the past I have (apparently unnecessarily) painstakingly removed the skin. We’ll see.

(Yes, Green Moose pants makes this much easier to do ;) )

In the meantime, I slice my mushrooms and browned them nicely. Towards the end of that process I added some sliced onion. As the onion softened and browned I added some garlic, coriander power, salt, and pepper.

To prepare the kale I cut out the stems and sliced the leaves. Now they’re ready to add to the mushroom mixture. Another blurble of oil and some balsamic vinegar, a quick toss and cover on for a few minutes.

Finally, I tossed in a bit of chopped piquillo peppers for some color and Voile’.