A question I frequently get from readers is whether my house is completely gluten free. Yes, it is. Except for my husband’s beer 🙂 It is a personal decision to make the entire house gluten free, but it is what works for us. I mixed the kids’ lunches up once while we lived in a shared household and after that decided to go gluten free. Too much work for me to keep it separate! Holidays at our house are also completely gluten free. I love the challenge to make traditional holiday meal items so that no one misses the gluten!
Most of the meal is naturally gluten free, except for the stuffing and the rolls. This year I am making my own stuffing. I am going to base it on this recipe, but use all the ends of the gluten-free bread that I have been saving in the freezer for the cubes. I will also substitute vegetable stock so that it is vegetarian for one of our guests.
I tested some recipes for rolls and decided that I am going to use the corn-based rolls recipe from Roben Ryberg’s book, You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten-Free! I will cook them just before we eat, so they come fresh out of the oven onto the table.
Here is my super easy Thanksgiving side dish recipe for acorn squash. The hard part is timing it for your oven space! This can be cooked while your turkey is resting and you are making gravy. Then keep it warm and covered while your rolls cook. Just prep it in the pan earlier in the day so that whenever you have time and space it’s ready to go into the oven.
Chili Rubbed Acorn Squash
Ingredients
- 1 Acorn Squash sliced into half moons
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
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Toss squash with the rest of the ingredients in a baking sheet (you can probably fit 1 ½ acorn squashes on each baking sheet).
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Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Take out, flip each piece of squash and return baking sheet to oven and bake for another 15 minutes.
Recipe Notes
You can easily double or triple this recipe for your holiday meals. You can also prep the squash ahead in the pan, ready to go in the oven when you need to cook it.Â
Don’t try to over complicate your meal. I have done that many, many, many times and only you suffer for it. Thanksgiving is not the time to experiment with fancy recipes. Keep it simple with just a couple of seasonings and the fewer the steps for you to take the better! The more you can prep in advance, the better and the more help you can take from the store, the better.
If you missed it, check out my Holiday Mashed Potato recipe and ideas for easy sides, how to simplify your Thanksgiving meal and about the star of the show, the turkey.
Send me a message or comment below if you have any questions about making your Thanksgiving meal gluten free.
I’ve never seen acorn squash cooked that way…it looks delicious
That acorn squash looks delicious! I can’t wait to try the recipe!
I’v never tried this type of squash before! I’ll have to try out this recipe!
This looks not only delicious but so beautiful as well. Acorn squash is so pretty when it’s sliced up like that!
Surprisingly I have never tried acorn squash. I’ve never known how to cook it. This looks pretty easy and sounds delicious!