Recipe: No-prep sheet pan squash and chickpeas

Hearty winter squash, like butternut, is one of my favorite cool weather vegetables, but I don’t love the amount of prep that is usually involved. Between peeling the stubborn skin, scooping out the messy seeds, and chopping the hard interior flesh, whole winter squash isn’t exactly an ingredient I want to tackle on a weeknight. But now that it’s easy to find pre-cut squash at most grocery stores, I’ve been incorporating it more frequently in our dinners, like this super-easy sheet pan recipe.

In it, I pair pre-cut butternut squash with a can of drained chickpeas, olive oil and a couple of teaspoons of poultry seasoning. (You can easily swap in any herb-based seasoning mix of your choice here; choose whatever you’ve got in your pantry.) I mix everything together on the sheet pan — no mixing bowl to wash — and pop it in a hot oven until the squash is tender and the beans begin to crisp. Another few minutes under the broiler adds a bit of brown to the top.

For color, and to add another vegetable to the mix, I stir big handfuls of baby spinach on the warm sheet pan after it comes out of the oven. The spinach wilts and easily mixes together with the squash and chickpeas. A cup of crumbled feta brings brightness, salinity and richness to the final dish.