Butternut Squash and Green Beans with Maple Syrup
This is a great vegetable dish. It's easy to make with cubed squash. Consider this for your next company dinner or save it for the holidays. To make this dish, use one butternut squash, as many beans as you wish, a handful of nuts and some maple syrup. Sounds like a pretty good combination. This is a wonderful side dish recipe (though I did make a meal of this). The secret to this dish is to not overcook the vegetables.
This is a great vegetable dish. It's easy to make with cubed squash. Consider this for your next company dinner or save it for the holidays. To make this dish, use one butternut squash, as many beans as you wish, a handful of nuts and some maple syrup. Sounds like a pretty good combination. This is a wonderful side dish recipe (though I did make a meal of this). The secret to this dish is to not overcook the vegetables.
- Carbohydrate 29.7213083661714 g
- Cholesterol 61.006250026162 mg
- Fat 49.7554291991645 g
- Fiber 6.58799990257234 g
- Protein 11.6999875097901 g
- Saturated Fat 16.6000700079661 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Recipe (109g)
- Sodium 166.395000073624 mg
- Sugar 23.133308463599 g
- Trans Fat 3.08533250193713 g
- Calories 584 calories
Step-by-step
- Place the squash cubes on a large baking pan. Drizzle one to two tablespoons of vegetable oil over the squash. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Bake the squash for 20 minutes or until nearly tender, turning once during cooking.
- While the squash is cooking steam the green beans until they turn color and start to become tender. Do not overcook the beans; they will continue to cook in the skillet.
- While the beans and the squash are cooking, melt the butter in a large, non-stick skillet. Place the slivered almonds in the butter and sauté for several minutes.
- Place the squash and the beans in the skillet with the almonds. Pour the maple syrup over the vegetables and stir. Cook until the dish is hot and the vegetables are nearly tender, stirring often. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
Replacing butter with coconut oil changes the fat profile completely, altering how the slivered almonds toast in the skillet by raising the smoke point and introducing a distinct tropical note. Cubing winter squash uniformly to three-quarters of an inch ensures that heat penetrates the dense flesh evenly during the twenty-minute roast, preventing exterior scorching before the interior softens. Separating the cooking processes for each component protects delicate textures from the prolonged heat that degrades vibrant green pigments and turns tender vegetables into mush.
Steaming fresh green beans separately until they just brighten in color halts the conversion of chlorophyll before residual carryover cooking finishes the process in the final skillet toss. Sautéing slivered almonds in melted butter for several minutes requires constant motion because high milk-solid content burns rapidly once water evaporates from the dairy fat. Monitoring the skillet heat prevents the maple syrup from caramelizing too quickly into a bitter crust upon contact with the hot metal surface.
Combining roasted squash, steamed beans, and toasted nuts in a large non-stick pan allows the sugars from the maple syrup to glaze the ingredients uniformly without sticking to the cookware base. Seasoning with allspice should happen conservatively, as the warm phenol compounds in the spice easily overpower the natural sweetness of the squash. Adjusting salt levels at the very end of cooking guarantees proper seasoning after moisture reduction concentrates the flavors.
Holding prepared vegetables before final assembly requires chilling them rapidly in an ice bath to arrest internal cooking if advance preparation is necessary. Storing leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator preserves quality for up to three days, though reheating must be done gently on medium-low heat to avoid breaking down the squash cubes into purée.
