fav way to cook butternut squash?

Baked with butter and salt is really delicious.

However, it makes an amazing soup. Cook it in chicken broth with some ginger and a bit of honey (not much, because it's already sweet) and puree. Marvelous! If you eat bread, this is a good one for a bread bowl for a great meal.

1. Roasted in the oven with other veggies and/or potatoes. It goes really well with roasted pork loin (roast everything in one pan - delish!)

2. Butternut squash and potato soup - roast yellow potatoes; roast butternut squash; caramelize a couple of onions. Put all those in a pot with chicken stock, sage, and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes and once it's boiled a little bit, puree the soup. Then add a little bit of cream and salt and pepper to taste.

Question for those of you that peel and dice the squash: do you cook it a little bit beforehand, or are all of you Hulks that just smash through it?

Cut hash marks into it and fill with pancake syrup!

I had it a couple of nights ago in a risotto, pretty easy (except cutting the squash, that takes some time, but you can buy it cubed in a lot of places)

Variations on butternut squash soup:

start with 2 or 3 lb squash, cubed and cooked till soft.
mash to the desired chunkiness or puree for smooth texture

Coconut soup
Add a can of coconut milk, 1/2 tsp each of allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, warm through

Sour Apple:
3 to 5 green apples peeled and cubed or run through one of those hand-cranked peeler-slicers. Cook with squash. Salt and pepper to taste. Some people top it with cream just before serving. I have gotten DW out of that habit.

Baked
With apple rings and mace:
Peel and seed squash, slice into 1/2 - 1/4 inch thick rings. Peel and slice 6 or so McIntosh apples into 1/4 inch thick rings. Alternate layers in a baking dish. Top with brown sugar and butter. Spice with 1/2 tsp mace, not nutmeg. Mace makes a difference. A little salt. Bake at 350F for 40 minutes. Hey, a little sugar and butte with all that squash will not kill you.

Crockpot Butternut Squash Soup

Prep Time: 35 mins
Cook Time: 8 hours

Ingredients:
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion
2 tbsp garlic, or two cloves
2 tbsp tomato paste
7 cups water
1 cups dry garbonzo beans
1/2 butternut squash
6 slices bacon
1 cup wild rice or barley


Heat the olive oil in a skillet, add the onion, garlic and chopped bacon. Cook until the bacon is done and the onions are soft. Stir in the tomato paste, mix together well. Stir in 1/2 cup of water and scrap up the bits and pieces in the pan. Put the mixture into a 6qt crockpot. Add the garbonzo beans and the rest of the water to the crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hours. About 2 hours before serving, add the rice or barley and stir in well.

Serve topped with grated cheese (I like cheddar) and a dab of sour cream.

Per 1 Cup Serving without the cheese and sour cream:
Calories: 155
Carbs: 27
Protien: 7
Fat: 4


I dont like the traditional butternut squash soup, so looked for a variation. Found this in a tiny cookbook that was a free give away gift at a scrapbooking convention my mother in law went to. The bacon flavor is wonderful and the garbonzo beans and rice give it a great texture.

Butternut and Apple Mash
Cubed butternut squash, a couple peeled and sliced apples, and about 1/2 cup of liquid (water, apple juice or cider). Simmer on the stove with some cinnamon and nutmeg (or pumpkin pie spice) till you can mash it all up. Makes a nice sweet side dish.

butternut squash n leek mash

1 medium b-squash ( peeled,seeded, cubed )
1 medium leek ( sliced in half length wise, then diced )
1 container Roasted garlic cream cheese ( softened )**

put squash and leek into a pot with just enough water to cover with a little salt. Bring to boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Drain, toss in cream cheese and mix with hand-mixer.

** sometimes i mix the flavors of cream cheese, using half of each, original and garlic.

This recipe becomes our "mashed potato" replacement side as soon as Autumn hits. We are so sad when the season ends...lol

Here is the lasagna recipe. Made it last week for the first time and it will DEFINITELY be added to the regular rotation. SO YUMMY!

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/09/butternut-squash-and-spinach-lasagna.html

Bump!

roasted or in risotto

This is for acorn squash but I love it with all kinds, and my 2,4&36 year old boys eat it up!!!!

I usually just cut it in half and bake it, it's nice to throw a spring of fresh rosemary across it while it bakes and remove it after it's done.

It's totally unnecessary to add anything to it but for Thanksgiving I'm making a candied butternut squash to take to the in-laws. I'm going to puree it with brown sugar, butter and cream cheese after I cook it. (Then I'm going to put it into a pie pumpkin and bake it a bit longer.) That's a little silly for an everyday dish.