Normally, I rub squash in harrissa paste. Who knew that running out of harissa paste would lead to a new and delicious korean spiced squash recipe. So, instead of spicing squash with harissa, I used Korean pepper paste, or gochujang. What a deliciously serendipitous kitchen moment.
For this recipe, hard sweet squash work best. Think acorn, butternut, honeynut, delicata, or kabocha. Now, don’t come at me for peeling my acorn squash. I know you can eat the outside. But, I don’t like it, so I go through the extra effort of peeling it. If you like the peel of the squash, you can skip this step! But save the seeds when you scoop them out of the squash. We’re going to be roasting them for a crunchy element on top of the squash.
Slice your squash into 1/4 or 1/2 inch slices. Just make sure they are a consistent thickness so that they cook evenly. Also, mix together the gochujang, soy sauce, and garlic, and toss the squash until it is all coated with the gochuchang and soy mixture.
Line up the squash on a lined baking sheet and roast in the oven until the squash is fork tender. At the same time, place the seeds (picked clean of any squash pulp) on a separate baking sheet and toss with some oil, salt, and pepper and roast in the same oven until they are toasted and crunchy.
Garnish the squash with the crunchy seeds, a drizzle of sesame oil, and a green herb (parsley or thinly sliced scallions).
Korean Spiced Squash
Ingredients
- 1 acorn squash
- 1 tbsp gochuchang
- 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 garlic clove minced
- sesame oil for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Peel and de-seed the squash by slicing it in half and scooping out the seeds. Set the seeds aside, picking out all of the pulp from the seeds. If you like the peel of the squash, you can skip the peeling portion of this step.
- Slice the squash into 1/4 or 1/2 inch slices, depending on your preference.
- Mix together the marinade ingredients: gochuchang, soy sauce, and garlic.
- Toss the sliced squash with the marinade mixture so that every slice of squash is coated. Then arrange the slices of squash on a lined baking sheet.
- Add the squash seeds to a separate small baking sheet and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Roast the squash and the seeds simultaneously in the oven until the quash is fork tender and the seeds are toasted, about 25-30 minutes. Make sure to toss the seeds periodically during cooking to prevent them from burning.
- Once the squash is fork tender, arrange on a plate, topping with crunchy seeds, a drizzle of sesame oil, parsley, and flaky garnish salt (depending on the need of the salt so make sure to taste the quash before adding salt).
