Butternut Squash & Kale Casserole
This butternut squash and kale casserole turns simple ingredients into nutritious comfort food that can be enjoyed either as a side dish or a stand-alone meal. A perfect warm and comforting dish for a cold fall or winter day or night!
Cooking With Squash
One of my favourite things about fall is cooking with squash. Thereās something about it that wreaks of comfort food but itās still highly nutritious and, depending on how itās prepared, it doesnāt add to our expanding waistlines at this time of year either. Thatās a major bonus during the season of turkey dinners and treats galore, and I will take it, thank you very much.
Of all the squash Iāve tried, Iām a sucker for good olā butternut. I love the taste and the rich texture of butternut squash and have found it to be the perfect candidate for soup while also faring well as a chopped veggie in pastas, stir fries, pot pies and, my personal favourite, as the star of this butternut squash and kale casserole.
I had some on hand the other day and figured it would make the perfect fall-inspired healthy dish to gobble up for lunch on Halloween before I took Evelyn out trick-or-treating for a bunch of candy and junk food that would never make it into our home on any other given day of the year. And my plan worked! Eve knew she could only go trick-or-treating if she ate all of her lunch first, and so she did, and without complaint, which means that this dish is kid-approved too. Well, except for the kale, in our case. See, Eve doesnāt like āleavesā in her food, so I pick out the large pieces so sheāll actually eat the squash. Pick your battles, amiright?
In either case, I was happy to see her down an entire bowl of squash before the subsequent Halloween tradition of kids ploughing themselves with junk food commenced. Thatās about as good as it gets on Halloween so I was happy to let her have a few treats later on knowing that she had at least had a nutritious meal earlier in the day.
Butternut Squash with Real Parmesan
I adapted this recipe from the Oh She Glows cookbook. I had remembered trying a version of this recipe from the book a couple years ago and loving it, and I had some of the same ingredients on hand this time, so I decided to adapt the recipe to accommodate what I already had on hand as well as to accommodate my markedly non-vegan diet. No vegan āalmond parmesanā here! No maāam. Nothing but the real thing.
Now, donāt get me wrong. Iām sure the vegan parmesan is actually quite tasty. But I have a hard time calling anything made from almonds and pumpkin seeds āparmesan.ā Iād rather use the real thing.
But before we jump ahead to the cheese (always my favourite part), letās start at the beginning. First thingās first, start by prepping your squash.
How to Prepare Butternut Squash and Kale Casserole
To prepare the butternut squash, first cut the top and bottom ends off to remove the stem and blossom ends. Slice lengthwise down the middle until youāre left with two halves. Scoop out the āgutsā like you would with a pumpkin and add them to your compost. Peel the hard outer skin off of each half. Then chop the squash into roughly one-inch cubes and add to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
Once your squash is prepared, preheat the oven to 400ĀŗF. Next, remove kale leaves from stems and roughly tear up the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Add the kale to the bowl with the cubed squash.
I also like to add walnuts to this dish to add another layer of texture and nutrition. Plus, I just so happened to have some whole walnuts from a neighbourās tree sitting in a decorative bowl on our kitchen table along with pine cones and hazelnuts from our tree. (Because thereās nothing more useful than seasonal decor that you can eat too, and fall is prime time for such things!)
So I grabbed a few walnuts from the bowl and used my nutcracker to break them open and remove the pieces insideā¦ Because itās damn near impossible to get a whole walnut out of itās shell and remove all the hard, inedible pieces without it breaking. Itās a tedious process, but very satisfying! However, if you donāt have a walnut tree (or a neighbour with one), you can save yourself the hassle and buy shelled walnuts from Costco or in bulk at your local grocery store.
Once youāve measured out about Ā¾ cup of walnuts pieces, add them to your mixing bowl with the butternut squash and kale.
Finally, chop up a head of garlic (5-6 medium cloves) and add them to your mixing bowl.
Wait, did she just say a HEAD of garlic?! Oh yes she did!
Okay, if youāre not a huge garlic fan you can stick to adding just a couple cloves to your dish. But I personally cannot get enough garlic in my life, and I always find that recipes call for waaay less garlic than the average garlic-loving girl like me actually uses in her cooking. And Iāve never personally met anyone who doesnāt love garlic too. And for the record, no one has ever said any of my cooking was ātoo garlicky.ā So I implore you to give it a go! Use a whole (medium-sized) head of garlic. Break it up into cloves, peel and roughly chop those cloves and add them to your mixing bowl.
Finally, drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over everything and mix all of the ingredients together. Then spoon it all into a casserole dish and cover with an oven-safe lid or tinfoil.
Place the butternut squash and kale casserole into your preheated oven and bake for 40-45 minutes. Then take it out of the oven, remove the lid or foil and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Add about Ā¾ cup of parmesan and mix it all together once more. Finally, scoop a generous helping onto a plate and eat it as a side dish alongside a protein like roast chicken or beef, or enjoy it in a bowl all on its own or add farmerās sausage to make it into a hearty meal.
What about you? Whatās your favourite type of squash and do you have a preferred way to prepare it? Let me know down below:)
Butternut Squash & Kale Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 large butternut squash
- 1 bunch of kale
- Ā¾ cup of walnuts, roughly chopped
- 5-6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- ā cup olive oil
- Ā¾ cup parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Prepare the butternut squash. Remove ends, slice in half lengthwise, scoop out the "guts", peel the hard outer skin and chop into one-inch cubes. Set cubed squash aside in a large mixing bowl.
- Preheat oven to 400ºF.
- Remove kale leaves from stems, tear into bite-sized pieces and add to mixing bowl along with chopped walnuts and garlic. Drizzle with the olive oil and toss everything to coat and mix well.
- Spoon mixture into a casserole/baking dish and cover with a lid or tinfoil. Bake at 400ºF for 40-45 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and remove lid/foil. Let cool for 5-10 minutes, then add in the parmesan and toss to mix well. Serve hot as a side dish or a stand-alone meal.
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This was very tasty. I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy squash in the summer but I found this to be a light side dish. I added a couple of scrambled eggs to up the protein content and used old cheddar instead of parmesan since I had some that needed using up. Will make again. Would like to try it with butter instead of olive oil next time.
I made this for me and my husband and it’s definitely going in rotation. I used curly kale and sprinkled some fresh parmesan cheese on top just before serving. I didn’t use any salt or pepper. It was very flavorful on its own.
This recipe needed almost 20 minutes more than indicated in my NYC oven for squash to become tender.