Hon­ey-Roast­ed Squash with Sun­flower Seed Brittle 

You heard it here first, but at some point I will be writ­ing an entire cook­book inspired by this recipe. Becom­ing a great home cook is all about sim­ple prepa­ra­tions zhuzhed with a sauce, dress­ing, or top­ping to make it explode with fla­vor and tex­ture. Here, we’re roast­ing the hum­ble squash with a sweet and spicy hon­ey glaze and fin­ish­ing it with an addic­tive­ly crunchy sun­flower seed brit­tle. What kind of squash you may ask? Any squash you want! When I have time to go to the farmer’s mar­ket, I’ll splurge on hon­eynuts. When I don’t want to deal with peel­ing, I’ll use acorns. But most of the time, this is my favorite way to pre­pare a trusty but­ter­nut. The brit­tle can be made days in advance and the squash can even be pre-roast­ed, ready to be glazed and fin­ished in the oven before serv­ing. Just make sure to hide the brit­tle before serv­ing, since it has a ten­den­cy to dis­ap­pear among a fam­i­ly of noshers!

Serves 8 to 10 | Prep time: 20 min­utes, plus cool­ing time | Cook Time: 30 minutes

Roast­ed Squash

• 4 pounds squash (12 small hon­eynut squash, halved and seed­ed; 2 medi­um but­ter­nut squash, peeled, halved, seed­ed, and cut into 2‑inch chunks; or 3 medi­um acorn squash, halved, seed­ed, and cut into 2‑inch wedges)
• 3 table­spoons olive oil

Sun­flower Seed Brittle

• 2 table­spoons unsalt­ed butter
• 2 table­spoons honey
• 1 cup shelled sun­flower seeds
• ½ tea­spoon smoked paprika
• ½ tea­spoon kosher salt

KS&P

• ¼ cup honey
• 1 table­spoon sriracha
• 1 table­spoon apple cider vine­gar (or any vinegar

Steps: 

1. Roast the squash: Pre­heat the oven to 450ºF.
2. On a sheet pan, toss the squash with the olive oil and 2 heavy pinch­es each of salt and pep­per. (If using hon­eynut squash, place cut-side down.) Roast for 20 min­utes, or until just tender.
3. Mean­while, make the brit­tle: Line a small tray or plate with parch­ment paper. In a small saucepan, melt the but­ter and hon­ey over medi­um heat. Stir in the sun­flower seeds, smoked papri­ka, and salt and cook, stir­ring con­tin­u­ous­ly, until the sun­flower seeds are toast­ed and coat­ed in a thick glaze, 3 to 5 min­utes. Trans­fer to the parch­ment-lined tray in an even lay­er and let cool completely.
4. In a small bowl, stir togeth­er the hon­ey, sriracha, vine­gar, and a heavy pinch each of salt and pep­per. Once the squash is ten­der, brush the hon­ey mix­ture lib­er­al­ly over the squash. (If using hon­eynut squash, flip so they are cut-side up before brush­ing.) Return to the oven to roast for anoth­er 10 min­utes, or until light­ly caramelized.
5. Trans­fer to a plat­ter, then crum­ble the sun­flower seed brit­tle on top and serve.