Grilled Butternut Squash with Aleppo Pepper Yogurt Sauce
I'm all in for the sweet-and-savory combo—I go as far as tossing caramel M&M's into my salty movie theater popcorn—but the wife, not so much. If it were up to me, I would pair roasted sweet potatoes or butternut squash with so many main dishes, but there's fewer contexts my better half finds combos like that acceptable. It's often my goal to really make the sweetness of roasted vegetables shine, but I wondered what could be ways to go the opposite direction and make such things veer more savory than sweet. That question, along with a similar dish I saw on Cook's Illustrated, led me to create this recipe for grilled butternut squash with an Aleppo pepper yogurt sauce.
It was the sauce that was singularly going to transfer sweet roasted butternut squash into a more savory dish, and I thought about the right flavor combo to effectively do that for some time before venturing forth with assembly. I began with a tangy Greek yogurt and extra-virgin olive oil base that I gave a boost of vibrance to by using a splash of lemon juice. While a little cumin added an underlaying earthiness, I really wanted some heat in there, but not make the sauce outright spicy, which had me reaching for the Aleppo pepper, whose mellow heat and fruity, lightly sweet notes, felt like the right compliment to butternut squash.
To prepare the squash for grilling, I first peeled it, then halved it lengthwise and scooped out the seeds. I then cut the squash into half-inch slices and any larger-sized slices I cut in half to make mostly pieces that could be consumed in one bite. I then tossed the squash slices in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.
Next, I placed the squash in a single layer on the cool area of a two-zone fire, where all the coals were arranged on one side of the charcoal grate. I covered the grill and pretty much just let it roast until the squash slices were all consistently tender throughout.
I did check on the squash a few times during cooking and moved pieces around as needed when I saw some browning already and other not getting any color at all. After 25 minutes, they were all tender, but a few pieces could have used a little more color, so I moved those over direct heat and let them cook until they developed attractive browning.
Once they were all done, I laid the squash out on a serving platter, spooned on the sauce, and then added on some roughly chopped cilantro and a sprinkling of sesame seeds for both appearance and extra savory elements to compliment and elevate the primary efforts of the sauce.
Truth be told, I was kind of expecting not to be totally into this side as it's goal was to tamp down the sweetness of butternut squash that's the main selling point to me, but I was really digging how everything came together. The tang, extra acidity, and bitterness of the sauce melded well with the sugars in the squash to make everything taste balanced and whole. It was the Aleppo pepper and cumin that gave the dish its earthy and peppery personality that was complimented very well by the bursts of herbal freshness from the cilantro—something I never considered would go so well with butternut squash before this. My wife did seem to enjoy this incarnation of sweet squash more than others that I've made in the past, which was a win for this recipe to me, but one of my favorite aspects of this dish was it tasted as good, if not better, at room temperature. That's especially attractive to this griller because I'm always on the lookout for things that can be grilled ahead of time and remain just as good after sitting around for awhile—an important quality in a recipe for someone who hosts frequent cookouts and is in need of dishes that can weather the storm of sitting around for hours and still taste great.
