Butternut Squash Deviled Eggs
This is kind of a weird one. I brought these into my guinea pigs (co-workers) to test them out before posting this recipe, because it’s definitely not what comes to mind when you think of a deviled egg. I refused to tell my co-workers what the special ingredient is until they tried one… lol. Thankfully, these squashy eggs passed the test and everyone seemed to enjoy them. It’s a fun autumn-flavored twist on what I consider more of a summery dish. Plus, there’s a big ‘ole chunk of bacon on top, and you can never go wrong when there’s bacon involved.
Ingredients
1 small butternut squash (you will only need about 6 tablespoons of squash)
Olive oil
6 eggs
3 tablespoons mayo
1/8 teaspoon cayenne, plus more for garnish
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 slices of cooked bacon, cut into squares for garnish
Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cut your butternut squash in half and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Place squash halves on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Cook in oven for about 35-40 minutes, or until squash is tender when pricked with a fork. Remove squash from oven, set aside and let cool.
While the squash is cooking, start on the eggs. I’ve found that steaming eggs, rather than boiling, helps the shells to peel off more easily (especially when using farm fresh eggs). Place your eggs in a steamer basket inside of a pot, fill the pot with an inch or two of water, cover with lid, and place on stove over high heat. Once the water in the pot starts boiling and you start seeing steam seep out from the lid, set a timer for 20 minutes. When 20 minutes are up, turn off heat, drain hot water, and fill pot with cold water in order to cool down your eggs and stop them from cooking. Once cool enough to handle, crack, peel, and remove egg shells from eggs.
Using a sharp knife, slice your hard boiled eggs into halves. Scoop out yolk portion and place in a bowl. Set egg white halves aside.
To the bowl that has the egg yolks, add about 6 tablespoons of butternut squash, mayo, cayenne, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Smash the egg yolks with fork or potato masher and then mix everything together. If you have an emersion blender, you can use that to make your mixture nice and creamy and free of lumps.
Spoon the mixture into the egg white halves (or use a piping bag to pipe mixture in, if you want it all fancy).
Stick a piece of cooked bacon on top, sprinkle with cayenne pepper, and enjoy!
