This roasted butternut squash recipe is the perfect healthy side dish for your favorite fall meals, in soups, or as an additional topping to your salad. It’s super versatile and so easy to throw together!
Roasted Butternut Squash
The weather is cooling down and it’s starting to feel like fall — my favorite time of year for food. I just love fall flavors. Plus I always get excited when it’s cool enough to turn the oven on.
That means one thing: roasted vegetables! They’re so delicious and require basically no effort. I love making a big tray of them and eating them as a side dish, making roasted vegetable soup, or even throwing them on top of a salad.
Roasted butternut squash is a go-to recipe in our house for this reason. It’s the simplest recipe, with only five ingredients needed.
It has a mild, nutty flavor, similar to sweet potatoes — but with fewer calories, less sugar, and fewer carbs. So many of us have it in our head that butternut squash is sweet, but that’s usually because we drown it in maple syrup or honey. On its own, it’s actually pretty plain and even a little bitter.
Cutting A Butternut Squash
Honestly, the hardest part of this recipe is prepping the squash. Cutting a butternut squash seems complicated, but it’s not, it just involves some muscle and a heavy-duty knife.
Do it the right way once, and you’re set.
You’re going to need a sharp, durable knife — it’s the key to successfully cutting butternut squash.
Begin by cutting the ends off.
Then, carefully peel the squash. Start at the neck of your squash, and work your way down to the base. Continue this process until all the skin has been removed.
The skin is tough, so this will be a little more difficult than peeling, say, a cucumber. Peeling your squash before cutting into it makes a huge difference though — cutting it will be much easier with the skin remove.
Now, cut off the narrow neck of the squash so you’re left with two pieces. Then cut each of those pieces in half, lengthwise.
There are no seeds in the neck, so that easy to cut into cubes. For the base, scoop out the seeds then cut it into cubes the best you can. These pieces might look a little wonky because of the shape of the squash, but that’s perfectly ok!
How To Roast Butternut Squash
You’ve done the heavy lifting, so it’s all downhill from here.
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Make sure your oven has fully preheated before you put your pan in the oven. You want the oven to be hot in order to have butternut squash that’s a bit crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside. This isn’t the time to be impatient.
Place your cubed butternut squash on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil — this is important because the squash will stick to your pan. Don’t overcrowd your squash, otherwise, you’ll end up with steamed squash not roasted squash. You want to make sure each piece has a little room around it.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to make sure that the squash is evenly coated. Pop your sheet pan in the oven for fifteen minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and stir — again, squash will stick easily, so give them a good toss.
Place it back into the oven for another ten minutes, or until the squash pieces are fork-tender.
How to Serve Roasted Butternut Squash
There are so many ways to serve your roasted squash! Toss it with fresh herbs, like rosemary or thyme, or mix in warm spices and toasted pecans for a festive side dish.
Roasted butternut squash soup is a huge hit in our house. You’ve already done the hard part. Now you just have to blend the squash with your favorite soup ingredients.
Creamy butternut squash soup with some homemade croutons and parmesan cheese? I’m ready for those cozy fall evenings in the kitchen. I also love adding maple whipped cream or curry powder.
This roasted butternut squash can also be used on a salad with mixed greens, or kale, bacon, avocado, tomato, hard-boiled egg, butternut squash, feta, and onion.
Leftover roasted butternut squash is also easy to reheat in a frying pan or in the microwave. Use it to top off a grain bowl or even add it to a breakfast pizza or macaroni and cheese. The options are virtually limitless!
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Ingredients
- 1 large Butternut squash
- 2 Tablespoon olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Fresh parsley or rosemary optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- Cut off the ends of the squash, then peel off the skin.[mv_schema_meta name="Prep the Squash"]
- Cut the squash in half where it begins to narrow. Cut the bottom in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. [mv_schema_meta name="Cut the Squash"]
- Slice and cube the top half of the squash; repeat with the bottom half
- Place cubed pieces on a baking sheet, being careful to not crowd the pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to make sure everything is evenly coated. [mv_schema_meta name="Season the squash"]
- Put the pan in the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Stir the squash to prevent it from sticking. [mv_schema_meta name="Roast the squash"]
- Bake for another 10 minutes, or until the squash is tender. Remove from the oven and stir in fresh herbs, if desired. [mv_schema_meta name="Finish the squash"]
