Easy-Easy Barely Roasted Zucchini & Yellow Squash ♥

Easy-Easy Barely Roasted Zucchini & Yellow Squash
Today's extra-easy vegetable side dish recipe: Big chunks of zucchini and yellow squash roasted but just barely, leaving some bite. Weight Watchers Friendly. Low Cal. Low Carb. Gluten Free. Paleo. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real". All that good stuff and did I mention yet, really really good, too?

So people, really, it is still January. Enough with the cupcakes! and the cookies! and over-the-top Superbowl party food! Enough! It.Is.Still.January.

And besides, isn't January food, you know, the food that we should eat "most" of the time, our "every day" food? And aren't all the bazillions of sugar-butter-flour combinations we come up with, even the so-called “healthy ones”) aren't these "December" food and "every once in awhile" food?

We each of us make our own food choices but I happen to love the spareness that is January. Doesn't it just feel good? Less food. Less-rich food. Less fussy food. January is a great food month, no deprivation in the least, the simplicity is much welcome.

And certainly there can be nothing simpler than this quick and inexpensive side dish! JW's daughter served it for dinner with roasted salmon filets a couple of weeks back and I've bought one bag after another of zucchini and yellow squash ever since. It couldn't be simpler. It couldn't be more January. Because yes, January food, it should be February food. And March food. And. And.

The trick – if you can even call something so simple and spare a "trick" – is to barely roast quite-large but still bite-size chunks of squash, this leaves them warm but also leaves some bite.

RECIPE for EASY-EASY BARELY ROASTED ZUCCHINI

Hands-on time: 5 minutes
Time to table: 30 minutes
Serves 4

2 medium zucchini squash
1 medium yellow squash
2 tablespoon olive oil
Sprinkle garlic powder
Salt & pepper to taste

Set oven to 350F. Trim the ends off the squash, then cut into bite-size but still quite-large pieces. Toss with olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Insert into the oven while it still preheats. After 15 minutes, check the squash for doneness, give the squash pieces a quick toss. Let the squash finish roasting, testing every 5 minutes.

ALANNA's TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
Aim for about a pound of squash, combined. You could use one squash or the other but the color combination is so pretty!
We were gifted several jars of homemade spice blends for Christmas. These work great with this squash too. Check your spice cabinet for ideas!



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A Veggie Venture is home of 'veggie evangelist' Alanna Kellogg and the
famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.
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Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

Comments

  1. Interesting that you call one zucchini and the other one squash, Alanna - for me it's the same vegetable, just different colour - like you have red apples and green apples :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pille ~ The two squashes are related, maybe like fraternal twins vs identical twins. And it’s also a question of American terminology. Both are “summer squash” but zucchini is always green (or some times light green but then it would be a “French zucchini”). No one said American English makes much sense, some times.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My parents garden and they always call it zucchini and yellow squash. This is a great veggie dish that is easy to make and low in calories. I also like your Alanna's tips and Weight Watchers points at the end of the recipe.
    Martina Arty

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's interesting to me that you keep calling this "January food". Summer squash (such as zucchini and yellow squash) are summer vegetables, so unless you live in the southern hemisphere where summer squash is able to grow all year round I would have to say that this is definitely not a January dish.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous ~ Ah you are so-so right in a seasonal sense, summer squash are summer foods -- notwithstanding that thanks to the miracle of our global food distribution system, we get beautiful summer squash year-round. But my use of the term “January food” was in a metaphorical sense -- using it to mean the kind of healthy food we go to with fervor in January but then let lapse throughout the rest of the year. In part it was to my reaction to other food bloggers going rich-food happy in late January, forgetting that it was indeed still January (for healthy food) and that indeed, eating “January food” is the right thing to do twelve months a year. Just me ... playing with language and ideas. I’m so glad you took the time to write, truly!

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Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe, whether a current recipe or a long-ago favorite. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. ~ Alanna