I love winter squash, so I decided to try the Braised Winter Squash Wedges from Smitten Kitchen Keepers. Usually I just roast it, but the technique here seemed interesting.

Deb calls for a kabocha or red kuri squash, but notes that butternut and acorn will work as well. I decided to try this with acorn squash becuase I knew it’d be easier to scale the recipe down for the two of us. And indeed, I had one acorn squash that was a little shy of 1.5 pounds, so I halved the rest of the ingredients.

With this technique you roast the squash on both sides, and then add some liquid into the pan for the last few minutes of cooking. Deb calls for a very specific size of sheet pan which I did not have, so I pulled out a ceramic baking dish and managed to Tetris all the squash pieces in. However I didn’t get any browning on the squash, I think because I didn’t use a metal pan. (In retrospect I should have just used my quarter sheet pan, but I was thrown off by the specific sizing given.) Anyway, the lack of color didn’t bother me but is something to keep in mind if you make this.

The squash turned out well but I’m not sure the technique really added much. It’s not fussy, but it didn’t really impart anything special. The best aspect of this recipe is how you serve it. Deb has you smear some yogurt on a serving dish, add some lightly dressed arugula, and set the squash on top. The heat of the squash wilts the arugula, and the yogurt is a great accompaniment. Any kind of regularly-roasted winter squash would work well with those flavors, so while I’m not sure I’ll follow this method for the squash again, I will almost certainly serve it this way in the future.