This Roasted Butternut Squash Quinoa is a nice hearty lunch for a cold winter day. The butternut squash and chickpeas are good and filling, while still being healthy! Start by getting the oven preheated to 400 degrees and cook your quinoa.
While the oven is preheating and the quinoa is cooking, dice the butternut squash into small cubes. If you want to save a little bit of time, you can buy the pre-peeled and diced butternut squash. You will probably want to still dice it up a bit, as the pieces are usually pretty big. In a small bowl, combine the diced butternut squash with olive oil and fresh herbs.
Toss until the butternut squash cubes are coated with the oil and herbs.
Once everything is evenly coated, spread the butternut squash out on a baking sheet lined with a silpat liner. If you don’t have a silpat, be sure to spray your baking sheet with some type of cooking spray. Sprinkle with freshly cracked pepper and sea salt. I like to use the grinder right over the baking sheet.
Bake the butternut squash for 25-30 minutes. You should be able to easily pierce one of the cubes with a fork. If you taste one, it should be soft in the middle. Its always a good idea to test on of the largest cubes to be sure it is cooked all the way through. I’ve made the mistake of just tasting a small one, and the larger ones weren’t quite cooked through!
In a large bowl, mix olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, and black pepper. Combine the quinoa with the dressing ingredients and then mix in the roasted butternut squash and chickpeas.
Once it is all mixed together, plate, and top with pomegranate seeds. I don’t like to mix the seeds in with the quinoa and dressing, otherwise they can get a bit mushy. If you are portioning these out for lunches for your week, just put the pomegranate seeds on top of the quinoa in each container, and they will taste great!
Roasted Butternut Squash Quinoa
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups quinoa, uncooked
- 1 butternut squash, peeled and diced (about 6 cups)
- 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 Tbsp rosemary
- 1 tsp freshly crushed black pepper, divided
- 1 tsp freshly crushed himalayan pink sea salt, divided
- 1 can chickpeas
- 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, more if desired
- pomegranate seeds, from one pomegranate
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400℉.
- Cook quinoa according to package directions
- Peel and dice butternut squash into ½ inch cubes. Combine diced butternut squash, 2 Tbsp olive oil, thyme and rosemary in a medium sized bowl until evenly covered. On a baking sheet lined with a silpat (otherwise spray with cooking spray) spread butternut squash out in a single layer. Sprinkle with ½ tsp black pepper and 1/t tsp sea salt. Cook for 25-30 minutes until squash is soft in the middle.
- In a large bowl combine quinoa, remaining 2 Tbsp of olive oil, 2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar, ½ tsp black pepper and 1/t tsp sea salt. Mix well. Finally, mix in roasted butternut squash and chickpeas.
- Top each serving with pomegranate seeds. Tip: Do not mix in pomegranate seeds ahead of time or they can get mushy. If you are pre portioning into containers for lunches, keep pomegranate seeds on top of the container.
1 Comment
Wow this really is a beautiful dish!! All of the ingredients are favorites of mine especially the butternut squash and pomegranate seeds! looks amazing Hailee!!