I?ve been a little quiet on the blog lately and it feels good to be back with a new recipe. I had a whirlwind of a summer testing 60+ recipes and styling and photographing 50 plant-based boards for my new cookbook, Vegan Boards. It?s like the beautiful charcuterie boards you see on Instagram and Pinterest, but entirely vegan! I can?t wait for you to have a copy in your hands; the book comes out on February 2, 2021. If you?re interested, you can pre-order by clicking here! Okay, I?m done plugging my new cookbook. Let?s talk about this Roasted Delicata Squash Pasta with Kale recipe. It?s simple in the best possible way and celebrates my favorite fall foods.

When I set out to make this recipe I knew I wanted to use roasted delicata squash and pasta – that was it. I usually like to have an idea of where a recipe is going before I start cooking, but I let my intuition guide me on this one. I thought about making a creamy sauce with hummus or cashew butter. Mushrooms were on the table for a moment. But in the end, all I really wanted was to let the flavor of the sweet, caramelized delicata squash shine through. The result is what you see here. 
A garlicky vegan butter sauce lightly coats the rigatoni and squash, while sautéed leek lends just the right amount of flavor without overpowering the other ingredients.

If you?re new to cooking with leeks, here?s what you need to know. The usable part of the leek is the light green section below the dark ...