Winter Squash Toast - Simple and Delicious

Yum! Add a handful of greens and this is a delicious and nutritious meal.

Open-faced sandwiches are one of my favorite things - easy to make, delicious, and so pretty to look at! In the shoulder season between summer and fall, one of my favorite meals is winter squash toast. The variations are endless and it can be made fresh or with a combo of leftovers for a super quick lunch, dinner, or even breakfast! Let’s break it down:

If you haven’t got any leftover cooked squash on hand, you’ll need to start with that. I like to roast mine, cut side down to seal in the steam. With delicata, I like to slice it into crescents and leave the skin on. Any type of squash works: acorn, carnival, butternut, kabocha, pumpkin, whatever!

Once your squash is ready, begin toasting your toast in the oven. I like using local bread and doing it in the oven so I can par-toast the bread and then pull it out, load it up with toppings and put it back in. Also I don’t have a toaster, lol.

While the toast is toasting, prep your other toppings. Here are some ideas:

soft cheese of any kind (I especially am partial to Caromont Chevre)
leftover or freshly cooked pork, chicken, or turkey sausage. Bellair garlic sausage is the best!
sauteed mushrooms, peppers, onions, greens, etc (again, leftovers work!)
fresh peppers, onions, radishes or greens
crunchies like toasted squash seeds or toasted nuts — I toast the seeds from every squash I cook and use them on salads, this toast, soup, anything!
flavor bombs like pickles, capers, or olives, depending on your other ingredients

My toast #1:

Althea bread, Caromont herbed chevre, roasted butternut, sautéed sweet potato greens, sliced garlic, sautéed foraged chanterelle mushrooms, cooked Bellair breakfast sausage, and finished with Gathered Threads pickled onions

My toast #2:

Little Hat Creek bread, Caromont regular chevre, roasted kabocha, leftover peper-onion-mushroom saute, toasted kabocha seeds, served with fresh arugula