Culinary curiosity served my higher purpose. It really does. Out of culinary curiosity, I embrace foods. All kinds of food. Stepping outside of the box has increased my culinary repertoire and heighten my taste buds to higher level. I love all variety of squashes. When shopping for food, I quickly embrace all that isn’t familiar.

Kabocha squash is like a pumpkin, a super sweet pumpkin. I tend to gravitate toward butternut squash, due to it’s natural sweetness and often encourage others, especially Jamaicans to give it a try. Most Jamaicans are accustomed to pumpkin. To be honest, I myself, wasn’t exposed to other pumpkin varieties until I became a foodie (in the USA).

Sweet potatoes are also one of my favorite root vegetables. Being from the Caribbean where earth food/ground food is abundant, we tend to utilize them as staples in our cuisine. If the starch on the plate isn’t rice (pasta isn’t traditional in Jamaica), then ground provision would suffice.

I’ve learned to appreciate roasted root vegetables. My grandma used to roast yam over wood fire or charcoal. It was indeed d’luscious. One day, I will have a huge barbecue pit or wood fire area and roast everything under the sun. In the meantime, I’ll be grateful for my oven. This culinary delight is simple yet tasty. Half the time I roast vegetables, I end up eating all, if not most of it, before it’s served. Once you have peeled and sliced and diced the sweet potatoes, (I leave the skins on the kabocha squash) and remove the seeds, your dinner is halfway done. You can even roast the seeds. They’re d’luscious!
All it takes is a drizzle of olive or avocado oil, sea salt or pink Himalayan salt and pepper. If you are in the mood, add some fresh herbs. Toss it all together and spread it out on a sheet pan. Roast for about 15 minutes. Once they begin to caramelize, roast them for another 15 minutes and your done. You can enjoy them as tasty little snacks or add them to your salads, soups or wherever your heart desires.
Try them sometime. You’re gonna love it!