Once again Bon Appetit is appealing to my taste buds with this recipe. Pork chops are a regular staple in my diet, I love acorn squash, AND simple recipes! Although I’ve never been a huge fan of cilantro, it was perfect in this recipe, really complimenting the flavour of the squash seeds, I actually found myself eating the extra seeds mixed with fresh chopped cilantro! As always, I made a few modifications to the recipe, cutting it down to a single serving, and using the acorn squash seeds instead of pumpkin seeds. It also said to shell the seeds, which I definitely was not going to take the time to do! Instead I left them whole and roughly chopped them as stated in the recipe, and it tasted great!
- 1 tbsp acorn squash seeds (chopped)
- 1 acorn squash
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper
- 1 pork chop
- 1½ tbsp chopped cilantro
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- ½ clove garlic (finely chopped)
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Cut acorn squash in half, remove and rinse seeds, pat dry with paper towel.
- Once oven has preheated, place seeds on a baking sheet, baking until just starting to brown.
- While seeds are roasting, cut squash into wedges, brushing with some olive oil, and salt & pepper to taste.
- Once seeds are roasted, remove from oven, place acorn squash in.
- As acorn squash cooks, flip about every 10-15 minutes, cooking for 30-45 minutes, or until tender.
- While squash is cooking, prepare your vinaigrette. Combine squash seeds, cilantro, lime juice, garlic, two tablespoons of olive oil, and salt & pepper in a bowl.
- Once your squash has roasted for 30 minutes, brush pork chop with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and cook in a pan on medium-high heat for about 5-8 minutes on one side, until browned, and about 3 more minutes on the other side.
- Once squash and pork chop are done, plate, drizzle with vinaigrette, and serve.
Even though i’ve eaten acorn squash many times, I didn’t realize you could just eat the skin until reading this recipe, which makes me like it even more! It cooks down to be thing and a little bit crispy, add a little crunch to the squash which was great! This is a great, easy recipe that will definitely be finding its way back into my dinner plans in the future!
Bon appetit!
Bob
The squash’s skin looks very much like an eggplants.
How did you reach that darkish hue?
Looks delicious. Looking forward to trying this one.