Butternut Squash from Frozen.

In this Not Following the Recipe video, I’m remaking roasted butternut squash from frozen (see link below). In this video I share how to adapt recipes to use what you have or how you want to prepare food. Cooking for one requires substitutions, and this is to help you learn about substitutions.

Instead of roasting this butternut squash, I’m cooking it on the stove. It turns out delicious, and mushy! For tender, crispy cubes, definitely roast, for easy, crispy bits that are mashed too, try this stovetop method. Either way you’ve got a delicious side dish that’s great as a side, or added to another dish. I add this to more roasted vegetables, grains bowl with a tasty oregano red wine vinegar dressing.

Original roasted butternut squash recipe: https://www.nourishnutritionblog.com/roasted-frozen-butternut-squash/

Brussels sprouts and asparagus video (with additional bowl ingredients) that I add it to: https://youtu.be/C9BPEuMWKPc

Brussels sprouts recipe: https://www.nourishnutritionblog.com/asparagus-and-brussels-sprouts

Get Recipes delivered to your inbox: https://www.nourishnutritionblog.com/subscribe/

I I would add seasoning to this because it’s good I don’t know if I would add seasoning to this this is really good you can really taste the butternut squash which is nice and it’s so soft you could even mash it with a fork and have like mashed sweet mashed butternut

Squash like mashed potatoes but butternut squash so but before we get into the butternut squash recipe I wanted to share a little bit of background so my name is Rebecca I’m a dietician and the person the home cook the the passionate person about cooking for one behind the

Scenes at nurish nutrition Co and nourish nutrition blog and also now this new cooking video series I guess of how to cook or it’s really called not following the recipe that’s what it’s called it’s called not following the recipe and the point here is to show you

How to use what you have make something that’s delicious something to look forward to but make it adaptable and and work for you because when you’re cooking for one it’s helpful to not buy a bunch of different things and to just kind of stick with a couple especially when it

Comes to vegetables also it’s really easy to feel like you’re wasting food so let’s figure out how to make the best the most with what you have and to use that up and make it delicious and substitutes or cooking with substitutes is such a good helpful tactic for cooking just in

General but focusing on cooking with substitutions when you’re cooking for one is extra helpful because fresh produce fresh food isn’t going to last forever so let’s make the most out of what you have make the substitutions that you need to use what you have to save money to reduce food waste and to

Get creative in the kitchen and really enjoy it now that might seem overwhelming and it can be but that’s why I’m creating this series to show you how to make the most out of it kind of really really simple substitutions that don’t take years and years of of

Experience cooking or a culinary degree or anything this the point of this is to make it easy to make it approachable and to kind of teach some tips and tricks along the way to make cooking for one easier more enjoyable and something that you’re like not going to hate so I’m

Going to be showing you a little bit more of like the whole process here to kind of show how you can incorporate like time-saving tricks and all of these and little things that you can do to make cooking easier more enjoyable and I don’t know like save time that

Sounds great so again I’m showing you a little bit more of the process in these videos I kind of hope that I’m going to be like cooking a little bit more on the Fly but I will admit sometimes I’m thinking a lot about the recipes and how

I’m going to use what I already have in the kitchen and also and then another way that I’m going to be creating these recipes is to kind of like after I’ve been testing them or while I’m testing them sometimes I kind of throw things in

And I’m going to be doing that so it’s a little bit off the fly to some degree it just might be off the fly in this moment and that’s what this recipe is I’ve kind of been thinking and dreaming about how to use this butternut squash and I’m

Going to be like combining a couple of different re recipes so the video for now and then the next video coming out are going to be combined to use up a lot of food that I have in my fridge and freezer which I’m really excited and

Excited to share you share with you so let’s get started butternut squash that’s frozen how to cook that up let’s see what I’ve got in the fridge no it’s not in the fridge it’s in the freezer okay so I’ve got kind of the last I don’t know two cups is of

Butternut squash that I have in the freezer and the nice thing about this recipe is it’s it’s like the base recipe the recipe that’s on nourish nutrition blog is so incredibly simple which means that you can adjust as you want and it also means that you could batch cook you

Can make extra servings and then reheat it for later or eat it cold the options are endless I’m a huge fan of making recipes especially for vegetables if I’m like going to make some extra is to keep the seasonings really simple and then add in whatever I want later so then it

Can be adapted and work with whatever it is that I want to eat it with cuz sometimes that’s planned ahead of times and other times it’s not and both of those options are great okay so as I’m getting started I’m going to share a little bit about how this recipe

Originally was and then how I am adjusting it okay so my first step here is to turn on the stove and while this is heating up I’m going to be breaking falling out I’m going to be breaking up my butternut squash here so to be completely honest butternut squash that

I have is like so small it’s so small I kind of don’t love it but I’ve got what I’ve got and so originally this recipe was made to be roasted which is great easy hair in that oops um it’s super easy which is really nice and um pretty

Hands off which is great when cooking but I wanted to do this over the stove cuz it’s a little bit easier and I think it’s a little bit better way method of preparation when you’re cooking with such small pieces they get burnt really easily in the oven doing or adding

Anything to this right now I really want to um melt the the ice here and it’s going to take a little bit since I just turned it on but I think that’s okay as you can tell we’re kind of flying by the seed we pants here

Which is what cooking at home is a lot of times and that’s great works just fine so um yeah if I were roasting these in the oven or in an air fryer I would break them up as much as I could before cooking them because they’re going to cook at much less

Even time when they’re in these big clumps but when you’re on when it’s on the stove you can kind of like chop it up while it’s cooking and it works okay I mean it’s not the best but here’s still working with what we got so because they’re so small you’re going to

End up with a little bit of like some big chunks some smaller no no no no you’re going to end up with some excuse me that’s not what I meant you’re going to end up with some kind of mushy parts and less mushy parts that’s

Fine so I’m going to kind of break this up and then once the ice crystals are melted and also once it’s looking a little just looking less Frozen that’s what I’m going to add in the oil and the seasonings because I want to do that um also one thing to

Keep in mind this is because of because I’m using this spatula they’re going to be a little bit more mushy again it’s kind of up to you and your preference maybe find some butternut squash that’s in bigger chunks or break it apart well and kind of freeze free them individually if

They’re not already so it kind of depends on where you’re able to find it and what’s available to you and this took me three stores to find this in Salt Lake so I’m using what I’ve got the flavor is great the texture of half of them will be great

And feel like that’s a part that we often don’t talk about when we’re talking about cooking is using what you have it’s not going to be perfect it’d be great to make it perfect but it can still taste good and be an enjoyable meal with with some kind of mushy parts

Of butternut squash and that’s fine okay so here we are it’s softening up and one thing to keep in mind when you’re cooking something from Frozen is most of all the time it’s the the water is melting and also evaporating your food is going to especially when it comes to vegetables

It’s going to be kind of soggier and and you know not look the best and then it’s going to crisp up and that’s why again I’m holding off on adding oil and Seasonings to it because we’re kind of defrosting it in the pan at this moment

That’s the step um I think it’s going to be a good decision to not Stir It Up so much because it’s breaking them apart again these pieces are pretty small so I want to um if I want some pieces I would rather it’s going to be a mix because of

Where we’re at right now that’s fine and it’s going to be good to use up what I have because it saves money and it’s you’re able to like not waste much food which is cool okay another part of this is kind of going with the flow seeing what’s happening here I’m adding more

Because what am I going to do with like a half a cup which turns into a/4 of a cup of butternut squash I would just rather cook it all now use it all at once or split it up depending on what I’m making make the most out of it

So I’m using a pan because I find it a little bit easier and especially with these small pieces again the original recipe is roasting this butternut squash which is great you definitely are going to get better chunks because of how small this butternut squash is but the flavor is

Going to be great either way so my kind of General plan here with this butternut squash is to see season it really simply and then I’m going to be adding it to like a warm grain bowl and I’m going to add some um pan fried I’m going

To cook it the same way but some asparagus and brussel sprouts for the next video so the point here is to kind of use what I have and I’m making my lunch right now and um kind of show how to add a couple of foods together make

The most out of what you have adjust recipes to use what you have and what you like just to make cooking I don’t know more interesting more real uh something a little bit closer to what people’s experiences are in the kitchen which is not perfect so yeah that’s good for

Now okay so now most of the water is gone and this is just softening up so much so it’s just going to be like a mash here we’ve got like five or six pieces that’s fine um got some oil that I’m going to be adding to here that’s going to help the

Edges crisp up and since I’m cooking it in a cast iron Skillet the hope hopefully it’s going to be nice and seasoned enough that things aren going to stick too too bad and I want it’s going to spit a little bit cuz there is still some water in here but I want yeah it’s going to spit a little bit cuz of the

Water kind of unavoidable when you’re cooking from Frozen and uh I want this to crisp up so I want it to be hot enough which is like medium low medium low heat cuz cast iron skillet holds on to a lot of heat um so I would go medium maybe medium high if

You’re cooking with something else and try not to touch it so it can Brown up and crisp up on an edge my next step is to add seasonings I’m like I mentioned I’m going to add a dressing to this as I cook it or as I to serve it so

I’m just going to season it very very simply and I would Rec recommend seasoning this similarly if you’re going to be making extra kind of like what I’m doing right now I’m not sure how much I want how much I’m going be able to eat

Um so you can have it for later and use it in a different dish instead of be stuck with whatever flavoring you’re adding maybe I’ll kind of make my own chunks by breaking apart these pieces again I really part of this is to show kind of the reality of cooking you

Don’t know EX ly what you’re getting into um I feel like it’s a little bit I hope it’s helpful to kind of see this process as opposed to I tested this five times before and it works out perfectly I know it’s going to taste good and here

Kind of we’re learning some lessons on how Foods react with different cooking methods and how they’re starting out as well I I don’t think I would have thought the butternut squash it would do the exact same thing and it would do it even faster because it’s not cooking from the

Beginning um the oven probably is the best cooking method for this because you just you don’t touch it you break it all up as much as you can before adding heat and then you let the oven do all the work it’s going to get really um soft like this is in the oven

And then it’s going to um crisp up after that so I’ve got the door open because I don’t have a fan that works in my kitchen and and I think this is about done it’s getting quite Brown opening the door was a little bit too long for

These but that’s okay kind of live and learn this the flavor is going to be good learning through my learning too so as you can see it’s really Browning up getting a tiny bit burnt in some parts so I turned off this the Heat and and it’s very

Mushy so again the small pieces of butternut squash maybe not the best way to cook it it here but I mean there’s nothing if you excuse me there’s nothing wrong with this it’s just if you like the butternut squat squash pieces you might want to roast them in the oven and

I’ve cooked them in the air fryer before they just get real Brown um I like the oven better than that so that’s it here we go okay since cast iron skillet holds on to the heat a lot I’m going to hurry and get this out so as you can tell pretty mushy quite

Brown nice and kind of orange yellow it’s wonderful it’s going to be great in a salad cuz it’s kind of cuz it’s kind of just going to can spread it out easily in the C which would be great okay so I’ve got my plate putting

It on here can eat it this way with maybe I think it would be great with like just a simple protein and maybe so you can see how this is looking kind of see in the steam it’s quite hot um again I would I would add seasoning to this because it’s

Good I don’t know if I would add seasoning to this this is really good you can really taste the butternut squash which is nice and it’s so soft you could even mash it with a fork and have like mashed sweet mashed butternut squash like mashed potatoes but butternut

Squash you can also add like herbs Veron or Italian seasoning I’m standing with that’s because it’s this what we got um could add like something crunchy to it like Sesame not sesame seeds you could add sesame seeds you could add sunflower seeds you can add cheese what I’m going

To be doing is adding some other vegetables some grains FedEd cheese and this great dressing that I made for my Mediterranean bowl and have it kind of like a harvesty Mediterranean inspired lunch it’s great so here we go easy the texture not what I expected but

It’s it’s good it’s really soft easy to eat delicious I don’t know what how how much better can you get I don’t know so thanks for watching I appreciate it hope you found this to be helpful kind of see the messy process of cooking it’s not all pretty little bowls and um things

All set up ahead of time it’s kind of like fly by the seed your pants and it’s a little little bit fun that way you don’t know exactly where you’re going to get and learning how to deal with those setbacks or things not going exactly as

You want is really helpful so uh thanks if you found this interesting or want to kind of follow along and and get more inspiration or ideas of how to cook for one how to make it easier and how to adjust recipes to use what you have through this not following the recipe um

Series hit the Subscribe button let me know what you think do you what would you add to this butternut squash would you add other flavorings to it would you add it to something else to get some flavor what do you think of the mushy butternut squash versus kind of the cubed

Butternut squash is that good enough for you or do you do you really like those cubes I’m I’m really curious I would love to hear thanks again for watching and we’ll see you in the next video