Chef Note:
Butternut Squash is a tasty vegetable that can be consumed throughout the year. It’s delicious, nutritious, and fills you up without the downside associated with starchier vegetables like potatoes. Chef Haan Palcu-Chang remixed this veg traditionally thought of as a winter ingredient with his Pan Fried Butternut Squash and Apple Salad with roasted Hazelnuts. There’s a tad of butter in this recipe, but if that is not for you, replace it with a lovely but nut oil like walnut or hazelnut to mimic that buttery richness and fullness of flavour.
Recipe courtesy of Haan Palcu-Chang
Pan-Fried Butternut Squash And Apple Salad With Roasted Hazelnuts
30 mins
2
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons of skinned hazelnuts
- 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
- 4 3/4” slices of butternut squash, cut into rounds and peeled and seeded if needed 2 tablespoons of butter
- 2 3/4” slices of Granny Smith apple
- 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar salt
- 1/2 a green onion, finely sliced
- 10 large picked mint leaves
Instructions
- 1 Heat a toaster oven or oven to 325°F and place the hazelnuts on a tray and roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes until just lightly browned. Let cool, place on a cutting board and crush with the bottom of small pot until broken into large chunks but not powdery. Set aside.
- 2 Put a large non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the sunflower oil. Place the squash rounds in the pan and let them cook for 4-5 minutes. You want them heavily caramelized, almost burned. Flip the squash over and repeat the cooking process on the other side. Once cooked, remove from pan, cut in half and keep somewhere warm. If your pan is not big enough to cook all the pieces of squash at once, do this in batches.
- 3 Heat a small pan over medium high and add the butter. Once the butter starts frothing, keep a close eye on it and remove once the milk solids floating in the butter are a dark nutty brown. Remove immediately from the heat and place in a bowl.
- 4 Slice apple pieces into finger-width batons.
- 5 Assemble the salad: place the apple and the squash in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Coat with the butter and vinegar and season with salt. Taste for seasoning and add more vinegar or salt if necessary. Gently combine the remaining ingredients in the same bowl. Check for seasoning once more. Slide onto a plate and serve immediately.
