How to: Roast Butternut Squash

This is the first How To post in hopefully a bunch that will outline some of my tricks, tips and kitchen secrets to make home cooking a little bit easier.

Note: You will be able to find these How To posts in the tab along the top of the page near the Home and Recipe Index tabs.

How to Roast Butternut Squash

I love squash. Butternut, acorn, spaghetti, pumpkin … they're all good in my book. But one of the things I don't like about squash is how hard they are to cut and peel. It hurts my wrists and hands as I cut this dense veggie. Luckily, roasting squash halves is a piece of cake!

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking pan with foil, lightly grease and set aside.

If your squash is a dirty as mine was, give it a rinse and a scrub under warm water.

Cut off the stem

Cut the squash in half length-wise

Scoop out the seeds and gunk (culinary term) using a spoon (or like I did - a melon baller). Green waste the gunk and seeds (unless you want to roast them).

Put squash halves onto the prepared sheet, cut side down.

Roast for 1 hour or until soft

As soon as I removed my squash from the oven one of them instantly deflated leaving me with an odd, puckered sight. Nicely roasted but a little disconcerting.

Roasted but puckered.



Looks better on this side.
Allow the squash to cool a bit then, using a large melon baller (or spoon), carve out the squash. There's not a lot of waste here. You can get pretty much all of the melon pulp off the skins.


Looks like mango sorbet, right?

My melon pulp was quite smooth and only needed a slight mash with a fork but if you want to ensure a smooth squash mixture, pop the squash you just spooned out into your blender/food processer and give it a spin.

Put squash into an air-tight container in your fridge for up to 1 week or freeze it for later use.

You can use this process for other squash, including baking pumpkins!

Uses for roasted squash:
Smoothies (ie. 'Pumpkin' Pie Smoothie - recipe coming soon!)
Soups
Parmesan, Sage & Butternut Squash Risotto (recipe coming soon!)
Muffins
Recipes that call for canned pumpkin (not pie filling)