Kale Polenta with Roasted Butternut Squash Sauce

I moved into a new fancy house! It's gorgeous and old and filled with boys. The rooms are enormous -- with the exception of the kitchen. It's literally the size of the bathroom in my old home. Maybe. Maybe it's a little bigger. But hardly!

But it is rather precious and I feel nice and warm inside. So what better way to celebrate my move than split a 6-pack with my new roommate and go to bed at 8?

That was not a rhetorical question, because the answer is this: make a fancy dinner!

Whenever I move, I discover all sorts of delightful things that I like to imagine I'll use soon but never do. And this butternut squash from the Community Farmer's Market has been sitting in my veggie bowl for weeks, just mocking me. I hate cubing butternut squash. But it is so worth it. Most of the time. This time, however, I just roasted it - which is always the route I'd go for a sauce.

I like making a good sauce to be the star of the show. So we'll start there and end with the easier parts of the dish.

Here's what you'll need for the squash sauce:

1 small-medium (how specific am I?!) butternut squash

1 T Earth Balance

1/2 medium onion, diced or chopped or however you like them

1/2 T brown sugar

1/2 C vegetable stock

1/4 C almond milk

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 T sriracha

First thing's first, roast the squash. Halve the thing, lightly coat the flesh in olive oil, and lay both pieces flesh-side down on an oven pan. Roast at 400 for about a half hour. When it's finished, remove the squash (well of course) and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Put it in a bowl or something. Or have your new roommate stand next to you with his hands cupped delicately while you spoon in the steaming squash. He's an Afghanistan veteran so surely he can handle a little squash, after all?

While your roommate is holding the squash, start the polenta. This is a fairly basic process - if you're buying polenta in a bag, follow those instructions for cooking, using vegetable stock instead of water, and add chopped kale after about 10 minutes.

Let's start the sauce. Throw the squash flesh into a blender or food processor and process into a puree. For the sake of saving on dishes, I'm sure your roommate wouldn't mind holding this for you again. What a sweetheart. 

Melt the Earth Balance in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, then stir in the onions and cook until translucent. Next, add the brown sugar and incorporate into the onions, then ask your roommate to dump the squash puree into the pot. Add the vegetable stock, milk, salt and pepper, lemon juice and sriracha, and cook for another 5 minutes. Finish with a dash of cinnamon.

Pour over polenta medallions and other sauteed veggies. I served mine with mushrooms, because, seriously, mushrooms.