Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpeas with Hot Honey #recipe from Molly MacRae

 

If you need a tasty, pretty, vegetarian dish for any of the upcoming holidays, give this one a try. Its warm colors and flavors will make a cheerful addition to any table. It’s also a great remedy for the short, dark, cold days ahead. It works well on its own or you can serve it with quinoa (or rice or couscous). If you don’t have hot honey it’s easy enough to make. Here’s the recipe I posted here back in April—Hot honey.

 

Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpeas with Hot Honey

Adapted from Melissa Clark in The New York Times

 

Ingredients

2 (14.5-ounce) cans chickpeas (preferably not “no salt added”), drained and rinsed

2 1/2 pounds butternut (or similar) squash, peeled, trimmed, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 6 cups)

1 3/4 teaspoons garam masala (or other spice blend of your choice)

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

5 thyme sprigs

1/8 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup fresh dill sprigs or cilantro (or a combination)

1 to 2 tablespoons hot honey

Plain whole-milk yogurt for serving

Quinoa, rice, or couscous for serving (optional)

 

Directions

Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Line one sheet pan with parchment paper and a second with paper towels. Put drained, rinsed chickpeas on the paper towel-lined pan and gently rub and pat them dry. Set this pan at the back of the stove top to let chickpeas dry further while you prepare the squash.

Put the cubes squash on the parchment-lined pan and toss with 1 teaspoon garam masala, 1/2 teaspoon salt, thyme sprigs, red pepper flakes, and 2 tablespoons oil. Spread squash into an even layer and roast for 20 minutes.

While the squash roasts, put the chickpeas in a medium bowl and add red onion, remaining 3/4 teaspoon garam masala, 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon oil. Toss until well combined.

After the squash roasts for 20 minutes, remove pan from oven, add chickpea mixture, and stir everything well. Return pan to oven and roast for another 30 minutes, tossing halfway through, until squash is golden brown and tender and the chickpeas and onions are slightly crispy.

Remove pan from oven. Sprinkle vinegar and herbs over squash and toss. Drizzle hot honey and toss again to combine. Taste and add more salt, honey, or vinegar to taste. Serve with dollops of yogurt and, if you like, quinoa, rice, or couscous. 

click here for a pdf of the recipe

 

Take time, this winter, to curl up with a trio of cozies – a drink, a treat, and a good book. May I suggest a bit of armchair travel, too?  

Visit Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, in the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries.

 

Or travel to the Scottish Highlands in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries.

 

Spend time in northeast Tennessee in the Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, two stand-alone mysteries, and a collection of short stories. 

Or travel from Cape Cod on the east coast to Monterey on the west coast, with a stop in Ohio along the way in my very gentle mysteries written as Margaret Welch.

 

Happy reading!

 

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Instagram or Bluesky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hot Honey #recipe from Molly MacRae

 

Hot honey is a simple recipe for a condiment with an exciting flavor profile. I used it as a drizzle over a roasted squash and chickpea dish. Amazing! I’ll post that recipe closer to Thanksgiving. In the meantime, you can use hot honey anywhere you want a bit of sweet with a bit of heat—hot toddies, cornbread, ice cream, roasted corn, roasted carrots, popcorn, fruit kababs, salad dressing—so many options.

There are almost as many options for varying the honey’s flavor. Substitute sprigs of rosemary. Add orange or lemon peel. Try crushed fennel or coriander seeds. Instead of crushed red peppers, toss in a whole, fresh jalapeño, serrano, or other pepper. If you prefer, you can strain out the solids. You can easily halve the recipe, too, which I did and then wished I hadn’t – not only is it that tasty, but then I would have had a pretty picture of the hot honey in a jar for this post. Instead we ate it all up.

 

Hot Honey

(adapted from All Recipes)

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup honey

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

 

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to boil. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature to let flavors infuse, about 30 minutes. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

 

Coming in June 2025!

There’ll be Shell to Pay

Haunted Shell Shop book 2

 

When she’s not selling seashells by the North Carolina seashore from her shell shop, Maureen Nash is a crime-solving sleuth with a ghost pirate for a supernatural sidekick . . .

Maureen is still getting used to life on Ocracoke Island, learning how to play the “shell game” of her business—and ghost whispering with the spirit of Emrys Lloyd, the eighteenth-century Welsh pirate who haunts her shop, The Moon Shell. The spectral buccaneer has unburied a treasure hidden in the shop’s attic that turns out to be antique shell art stolen from Maureen’s late husband’s family years ago.

Victor “Shelly” Sullivan and his wife Lenrose visit the shop and specifically inquire about these rare items. Not only is it suspicious that this shell collector should arrive around the time Maureen found the art, but Emrys insists that Sullivan’s wife is an imposter because Lenrose is dead. A woman’s corpse the police have been unable to identify was discovered by the Fig Ladies, a group who formed an online fig appreciation society. They’re meeting on Ocracoke for the first time in person and count Lenrose among their number, so the woman can’t possibly be dead.

But Lenrose’s behavior doesn’t quite match the person the Fig Ladies interacted with online. Now, Maureen and Emrys—with assistance from the Fig Ladies—must prove the real Lenrose is dead and unmask her mysterious pretender before a desperate murderer strikes again . . .

“I recommend Come Shell or High Water to readers who are looking for a new series full of great eccentric characters, an island getaway, and spectral shenanigans. I also was delighted at the use of one of my favorite pun-based exclamations being a shell of a lot throughout the book. Truly, Come Shell or High Water is a shell of a good time.” —Aunt Agatha’s Bookshop

 

Writing as Margaret Welch

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Instagram or Bluesky.