Roasted Delicata Squash with Feta and Pomegranate

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Roasted Delicata Squash with Feta and Pomegranate is both delicious and beautiful. The contrast in the colors makes it a gorgeous dish for any table, but the real joy comes in eating it. The squash is silky smooth with just a little crisp from the cooked skin, the pomegranate arils add a bright pop of juicy flavor, and then the creamy, salty feta brings it all together. You really couldn’t ask for anything better!

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I’m a huge fan of winter squashes of all kinds, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be delicata squash, both for how easy it is to prepare (much easier to chop than any of the others) but also for the flavor – slightly sweet and nutty.

When I first started making delicata squash, I kept it super simple, just slice and roast. And my family loved it so much that there was a phase when we were having it at least once a week. Over time, though, I started to experiment with different toppings and additions and, by far, my family’s favorite version is this roasted delicata squash with feta and pomegranate.

This dish is so simple to prepare, so beautiful to look at, and absolutely delicious. It makes a fun weeknight side dish but is beautiful enough to go on any holiday or dinner party table, too.

How to Make Roasted Delicata Squash with Feta and Pomegranate

This simple recipe really only includes four steps:

1. Preparing the squash for roasting
2. Roasting the squash
3. Seeding the pomegranate (or you can buy pomegranate arils ready to go)
4. Assembling the dish

How to Prepare Delicata Squash

As I mentioned, one of the reasons I love delicata squash so much is that it is much easier to prepare than its other winter squash cousins. This is because: it requires no peeling (you can eat the skin!), is soft enough to be able to slice through easily, and is relatively quick to cook, compared to other winter squashes.

In fact, you can prepare to cook delicata squash in just a few simple steps:

• Wash the outside of the squash
• Trim about 1/3 of an inch of each end of the squash
• Stand the squash on its end and slice it in half, lengthwise
• Scoop out the seeds (which you can save to roast, if desired)
• Lie the two halves flat-side-down and then slice them into roughly 1/3-inch slices, so they look like crescent moons

Now your delicata squash is ready to cook!

How to Cook Delicata Squash

The easiest and best way to cook delicata squash is to roast it. Why? Because it brings out the natural sugars of the squash and deepens the nuttiness, making for a complex and delicious flavor profile. Plus, it is super hands-off, which means you can throw it in the oven and then move along to other tasks in the kitchen.

Here’s how easy it is to roast delicata squash:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Lie the sliced squash in a single layer.
• Drizzle the squash with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Roast for 15 minutes, flip the squash slices, and then roast for another 15 minutes. Your squash is ready when it’s golden brown and starting to crisp up on some of the edges.

Now, you can just stop there and enjoy the delicata squash as it is (my kids say that roasted delicata squash tastes a lot like French fries) or you can take it up a notch and take the final steps to make Roasted Delicata Squash with Feta and Pomegranate.

How to Prepare a Pomegranate

The only potentially tricky step in the preparation of this Roasted Delicata Squash with Feta and Pomegranate is getting the pomegranate ready to eat. I like to do this step while the squash is in the oven.

I know that seeding a pomegranate can feel like a annoying task, but it really isn’t that hard. Here’s how to seed a pomegranate:

• With a paring knife, gently cut around the dried-out flower at the top of the pomegranate.
• When you pull that piece off, you’ll see where the pomegranate is broken up into sections because there will be white pulp-like veins that run through the top. Using those veins as guides, gently cut down along the outside of the pomegranate, so that you are just going through the skin but not into the fruit (you don’t want to cut up those beautiful arils!). I usually do four cuts in mine.
• Then, holding the pomegranate over a bowl, gently pull it apart where you made those cuts.
• From here, you can either pull out the seeds by hand (what I like to do) or you can hold the pomegranate pieces seed-side down over the bowl and, using the back of a large wooden spoon, whack the outside of the pomegranate and the arils will just fall right out and into the bowl.

Note: you can also skip this step entirely and just buy the pomegranate arils already prepared for you.

Once you have your pomegranate arils ready, you can assemble the dish by placing the squash on a platter and topping it with your crumbled feta and pomegranate seeds.