Roasted Butternut Squash with Cinnamon & Nutmeg Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Should I peel my butternut squash before roasting? ›

If you're going to roast the whole squash, I don't find it necessary. The skin becomes easily digestible after roasting, and it's easy to scoop out if you don't want it. If you're going to be cubing or slicing the squash to cook, then I do recommend peeling it during the cutting process.

Place the squash in one layer in a roasting tray and season lightly with salt and pepper. Sprinkle over the seeds, cover tightly with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes, or until the skin of the squash is soft, then remove the foil and cook for another 10 minutes until the squash is golden and crisp.

When is butternut squash in season? Butternut squash are harvested in late summer and autumn, but because they keep so well, they can be found all year round.

Butternut cultivars are pretty consistent when it comes to flavor. All have richly sweet, nutty flesh favored for all kinds of fall and winter cookery. The compact variety C. moschata 'Butterbush' (75 days) is short-vined and bears small butternut squash that are dark orange, dense and very sweet on the inside.

Drizzle the exposed sides with olive oil and salt, then place them, exposed sides down, in a lined oven tray and roast for 45 – 50 minutes at 210C/400F fan until super soft and you can easily pierce it with a knife. It should be buttery soft, smooth and easily scoopable with a spoon.

Food Safety and Storage

Scrub winter squash with a vegetable brush under cool running water before cooking or cutting.

And the good news is that you don't even have to cut into a butternut squash to tell if it's ready to eat or not. You can tell if your butternut squash is ripe by the color and texture of the outer rind. If there are any green spots, it's definitely not ready to cook.

Most recipes say to either bake or roast butternut squash—but what's the difference? While both cooking methods will turn the tough, raw gourd into a soft, sweet ingredient, roasting butternut squash is the more common process for achieving browned, crispy edges and a creamy interior.

It's important to set your heat at 425°F - yes, that high! If your oven is set at a temperature that is too low, you'll end up with uncooked or mushy roasted squash.

Why is my roasted butternut squash watery? ›

The key to avoiding watery butternut squash is to roast it rather than steam it. Steaming butternut squash causes the vegetable to absorb more water and doesn't impart much flavor. Roasting the squash prevents this and caramelizes the vegetable's natural sugars, adding another layer of flavor to your dish.

Nutritional Benefits of Butternut Squash

It contains zeaxanthin and lutein, two powerful antioxidants that support vision. Butternut Squash's high antioxidant content may have anti-inflammatory benefits, helping to reduce your risk of inflammation-related disorders like rheumatoid arthritis.

Butternut squash, cut into 1-inch cubes, should be perfectly roasted after about 25 to 35 minutes in an oven heated to 400 degrees F. When it's done, the squash should be lightly browned and easily pierced with a fork.

The vegetable squash that Americans are used to is a relative newcomer to Britain. It's usually called by its varietal name - butternut squash, acorn squash - and sometimes orange fleshed vegetables that would be called squash in the USA are lumped together as pumpkin.

Sweet, moist and nutty tasting, the flavor of butternut squash is a bit like sweet potatoes—or, some say, butterscotch. Because it's so dense, you get more servings per fruit than you might with other squash varieties. The rind is edible (once cooked), but it's more commonly peeled away.

Olive oil: the fat that adds flavor, prevents the vegetables from sticking to the pan, helps them brown while they bake, and helps the seasoning adhere to the squash. Kosher salt and black pepper: enhance the other flavors in the dish.

If you pick too early, the flesh will not be fully developed and the squash will lack flavor and not be that wonderfully vegetal sweet that is the wonder of butternut, honeynut, delicata, acorn, pumpkin and kabocha, among dozens of other winter squash.