Butternut Squash Salad with a Tahini Dressing

I want to apologize for being such a bad blogger lately. I love trying out new recipes but the truth is I get fed too much… At school I eat a wonderful lunch and often get to bring home leftovers. This week alone I brought home pork tenderloin, grilled chicken and fresh bread from the bread class. On Wednesday I volunteered for a cooking demonstration and at the end I got to bring home a quart of hummus, plenty of pasta with pesto, tuna tartar, and they gave me a bottle of red wine. The latter made me the happiest and the volunteering completely worth it. So I do get a lot of food and my roommates love me for it because I try to shove it down their throats (actually no need to when the pilot is home it gets gone quick… I do hope I will get a flight soon in exchange for all the food…)

Anyways enough excuses. To the few fans that like my blog (my dear friends and family thank you) I am jumping right back on the blog train and am going to try to be much more consistent. Fall is by far my favorite season to cook. I love anything with butternut squash, pumpkin, brussel sprouts, cranberries, pomegranates, figs, and the list goes on of my favorite fall produce. I have been seeing a bunch of recipes that I cannot wait to try so here is the first one!

I have trouble with recipes featuring butternut squash; if I had my way I would do ten blog posts in a row featuring my absolute favorite vegetable. I got this from the Smitten Kitchen Blog and it was such an interesting combination of flavors that I urge everyone to try it. I went to the grocery store with a shopping list and I still forgot the chickpeas in the recipe oops. It still tasted wonderful without the chickpeas, in fact I think it’d taste much better with brown rice or any type of grain (couscous, barley, wheatberries) so it can absorb some of the tahini dressing. If you make thins I encourage you to use at least two butternut squashes. I used only one and it fed just me in one sitting… I’m telling you I eat butternut squash like candy. After having to peel and prep at least 50 butternut squashes for my internship the best way to prep butternut squash is to: peel the entire squash first then cut in half separating the bulging bottom from the long skinny stem. From there cut the squash in about ½ inch pieces. Hope everyone has been having a wonderful fall lately. And if you have a seasonal item that’d you like me to blog about please let me know!