How to Roast Butternut Squash

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Roasted butternut squash is the perfect side dish – easy, healthy and sweetly delicious.

You can use this roasted butternut squash to make your own Roasted Butternut Squash Soup and if you are looking for an amped-up squash recipe, try my Honey & Cinnamon Roasted Butternut Squash.

How to Roast Butternut Squash

It isn’t often that that butternut squash gets cooked at home; despite its simplicity and deliciousness, butternut squash has always been considered more of a restaurant vegetable for some reason.

However, with a little bit of preparation and some useful knowledge, you can easily enjoy some butternut squash at home by roasting it.

Roast Butternut Squash Ingredients

Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.

• Medium butternut squash

• Melted salted butter

• Sea salt

How To Make Roast Butternut Squash

• Cut the ends off of the butternut squash

• Peel the squash, cut in half lengthwise, and then remove the seeds

• cut the squash into 1 & ½ inch cubes, and place them on a baking sheet

• Add the melted butter, toss and spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet

• Roast the squash at 400 Fahrenheit for around 50 minutes, turning while roasting for even browning until the squash is tender.

How To Easily Peel Your Butternut Squash

Peeling a butternut squash is never a particularly easy challenge; it isn’t at all like peeling an apple.

There is just something so rigid and frustrating about trying to peel the skin off of any kind of squash, so how do you do it easily to get it ready for roasting?

There are two main tools you can use to peel the squash; either a strong peeler or a sharp paring knife.

To peel it using a peeler, you can either balance the squash standing up and peel it from top to bottom, or you can make your life a bit easier and cut the squash in half first.

By cutting it in half, you create a smooth, even surface on the underside of each half of the squash, which lets you rest it easily on your chopping board.

From there, just drag your peeler from end to end to remove the peel, using a knife to chop off the very end bits that resist the peeler.

To use a paring knife, just slice off the very bottom of the squash entirely and then rest it on a chopping board, and then take a sharp paring knife, scissor down each side of the squash, trying to leave as much actual squash still on there as you can.

Don’t worry if you do lose a little bit every cut – a little waste is fine, but try to avoid hacking off hunks of just flesh rather than skin.

How To Avoid Accidentally Overcooking Your Butternut Squash

While this recipe makes for some tasty squash, it does have one problem that is inherent to cooking squash no matter what you do; it can easily become overcooked.

Other vegetables only degrade in quality a small amount with longer cooking, and some even improve over time, but butternut squash sadly gets stringy and terrible when overcooked.

The secret to making sure your butternut squash pieces don’t turn into mush is to be paying really close attention to them and make sure that you remember to turn them frequently while roasting.

By turning the squash, both by rotating the tray and flipping the actual pieces over while they cook, you not only ensure even cooking and some nice browning around the surface of the squash, but you prevent any one side from getting stringy and overcooked.

Looking for more delicious Side Dish recipes? Try these out:

• Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

• Roasted Parsnips with Garlic Herb Butter Sauce

• Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries

Enjoy!

Love,

Karlynn

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