Sweet potatoes, pumpkins and squash are essentially relatives, so why not treat them similarly? I understand that many squashes have distinct flavors such as acorn squash being a little more nutty, but butternut squash I believe has a lot of diversity.
I’m going out on a limb to say that I think there are two main ways to cook butternut squash, boil it or roast it. I typically roast it. Tonight it was cubed before roasting. Many times, I halve it, de-seed it and lay it face down on a baking sheet to cook with a little salt. Tonight, I did something similar by using a baking sheet, but I guess I have pie on my mind.
What you’ll need
- Butternut squash
- Olive oil
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Splenda
- Sharp kitchen knife (or a knife that will cut through squash)
- Mixing bowl
- Cooking spray
- Baking sheet
- Oven
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Start cutting your squash by halving it. Once you have it cut in half, de-seed it. I like to use and ice cream scoop because it pulls all the seeds and strings out easily.
- After you’ve de-seed your squash, start cutting it into cubes. To remove the skin, I cut it off, trying to keep as much of the meat as possible.
- Once your squash is cubed add it to your mixing bowl and sprinkle with a little olive oil. I use about 1 tablespoon. You may need to adjust this depending on how much squash you have in your bowl.
- Spray baking sheet with cooking spray. Even though you tossed the squash in olive oil it an still stick to the baking sheet.
- Dump squash onto baking sheet and spread evenly so that no pieces are on top of each other.
- Sprinkle pumpkin pie spice over squash. Use as generously as you would like. You can also use just cinnamon if you don’t like the other spices in the blend.
- Sprinkle a teaspoon of Splenda over the squash.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly crispy.
I’ve heard of people using honey to sweeten up squash, what ways do you like to prepare and cook yours?
<3 Cristina
