Dinner for One

Haha! You thought my poll was aimed at trying to figure out what you wanted me to write about! Not really, sorry, I'm going to continue to cook whatever I feel like cooking... I just got excited cause I found out I could make polls! So even though healthy main dishes aren't in first, you will just have to get over it and either read this anyway or go to some other cookie and brownie plastered website to drool over, but personal, I thought this rocked...

Usually cooking is the last thing I want to do when I get home from work, but on this particular past Thursday I didn't seem to mind. Besides, the recipe I'd had my eye on looked pretty easy, fairly quick, and utterly delicious! Once again, I'd been religiously checking smittenkitchen.com for a few good ideas, and when I came across this one I put it at the top of my list.

This recipe immediately got my attention because it includes one of my absolute favorite ingredients, winter squash. Butternut squash actually, and it's even roasted! How could you possibly dream of saying no? And better yet, one of my other absolute favorite ingredients was mixed in, chickpeas!!! Oh smitten kitchen, I do love you.

So I cut up a butternut squash, which is no easy task. Actually sliced into my finger a bit... but it's well worth it! Cubed then tossed in olive oil, garlic, and all spice, the roasting squash sent wafting out of the oven an absolute divine aroma.



I could've eaten the whole pan just like that, but I managed to resist and press on! Those lovely golden cubes of squash were tossed with chickpeas, sliced red onion, and parsley flakes (though I would definitely recommend using fresh parsley...) and drizzled with a tahini dressing.



You may be asking yourself, "what is tahini dressing?" Easy, it's a dressing made with tahini paste! If you're now wondering, "what is tahini paste?" then you might well go look it up because I've been wondering the same thing. We bought it a while ago for one reason or another, maybe a hummus recipe.... don't remember, and it never was used. I happened upon this recipe and pulled it out of the pantry. It's got quite a unique flavor, very nutty, but pairs well some olive oil and lemon juice. If you do decide to try out this recipe, however, I would recommend only making half a recipe of the dressing. It's good, but strong, and even though I polished off all of that salad within a couple days, I've got quite a bit of unused dressing sitting in my fridge, hoping for a purpose. Anyway if you're interested, you can find the recipe here: http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/warm-butternut-squash-and-chickpea-salad/#more-1870. I made it as a main course, but it was pair well as a side dish with something like a simple version of roasting/grilled/whatever chicken. It's simple, but elegant and unique, an excellent option if you're aiming to impress!