This Afghani-Style Roasted Squash is Your New Vegetable Go-To (Kaddu)
While kaddu, a smothered and roasted squash or gourd dish popular in Afghani cuisine, may be a new food to you I promise you it’ll quickly become a signature staple of your child’s diet. Think of it as the ideal vegetable side for the infant-toddler transition: it’s got those velvety soft and smooth textures they live for–a yogurt sauce gilds the lily–but with a deep bassline of sweetness and warming spices to keep things interesting and appealing. You’ll know what I mean the second it passes through his/her lips–or your own.
(Given your likely unfamiliarity with the dish, some tasting and cooking notes are in order. Restaurant versions of this dish taste so good because sugar is integrated into both the cooking of the gourd and the sauce; I’ve gone with maple syrup instead, which you can skip altogether (or use an alternative, such as agave or coconut sugar). Either pumpkin or butternut squash will work great in the dish, though I would suggest the first time you make it to use pumpkin–it’s just a little sweeter than butternut squash. For simplicity’s sake, not to mention to save you a few minutes of your time, I’ve taken the liberty here of leveraging canned tomato sauce, rather than making the tomato sauce yourself; it would take little additional effort–though more minutes–to make your own, however: just heat a small can of crushed tomatoes with about half of a cup of no-salt chicken broth and plenty of ground turmeric, ginger, and garlic for roughly 10-15 minutes until thickened.)
- 1 medium-sized Pumpkin or Butternut Squash (see Note if using pre-cut vegetables)
- Maple Syrup
- Cinnamon
- 1/2 cup Tomato Sauce (plain is best, but whatever you’ve got on hand will do)
- Turmeric powder
- ground Ginger
- Garlic powder
- Yogurt (whole fat preferred)
- dried Mint
- Lime
- Preheat your oven to 400.
- If using pumpkin, cut the gourd into four pieces and remove the seeds and the interior; if using squash, peel the exterior skin, cut the squash in half, and remove the seeds and stringy interior. Cut squash vertically to produce roughly 6-8 round pieces.
- In a bowl, sprinkle in a generous amount of cinnamon and ginger, a pour of maple syrup, and just enough coconut oil–or whatever cooking oil you have–to loosen up the syrup but keep the mixture somewhat thick; blend until integrated. With an oil brush or sauce mop, brush the surface and any sides of your gourd or squash.
- Lay the squash pieces on a baking pan with the skin side down if using pumpkin, or flesh side down if using squash.
- Roast vegetables for 45-60 minutes, or until flesh is soft. Remove from heat and cut into cubes. Set aside.
- While the pumpkin or squash cooks, make the yogurt topping: put 2-3 scoops of yogurt in a small bowl, then mix in a few shakes of garlic powder and dried mint. Taste the yogurt and continue adding and calibrating garlic and herbs until balanced. Let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour before using.
- Make the tomato topping: pour tomato sauce into a small pan, then add a generous amount of the turmeric–say, 1.5 TSP–and a good amount of garlic (assuming it’s not already in the sauce) and ginger as well; blend. Heat on Medium-Low for roughly five minutes.
You can very easily modify this dish to fit both the textural and visual needs of your child. You can see in the pic for this recipe that you can serve the pumpkin/squash as a sort of one-bite canape, which is great for toddlers and/or the finger-food inclined. If your child is the bowl-of-sauce-topped-with-the-actual-dish type, serve patatas bravas style by putting the squash/pumpkin pieces in a bowl, then pouring the yogurt and tomato sauce on top; mix together until one saucy heap. For infants, you can also try a mash approach: simple pour squash/pumpkin and sauces in a bowl and mix and smash together until unified in creaminess.
You can add ground meat to the mix–do so by adding to the tomato sauce–to make it more of a main course rather than a side. If you are struggling to get your kid to eat it on its own, mash it or blend it to use as a condiment (in place of ketchup on a sandwich, say) or as a sauce for pasta or another grain. I’ll let you in on a little secret, too: basically any white sauce–ranch dressing, spinach and artichoke dip, tahini–can replace the yogurt and taste good.
If using pre-cut vegetables, toss them in the marinade (see Step #3) and roast them on a parchment-lined pan for 30 minutes, turning over halfway through cooking.
Brad (the Dad) is the founder and Chief Recipe Officer of New Dad's Kitchen. His own cooking/feeding journey started humbly during his son's infancy, preparing and managing his son's bottle intake in order to support his wife; it has since blossomed into a full-on passion to feed his child and family delicious and healthy meals that can satisfy both a toddler and his very tired parents.
