Learn how to cook butternut squash perfectly every time! Enjoy roasted butternut squash as a simple side dish, or add it to fall soups, pastas & more.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve already made a few batches of butternut squash soup by the time mid-October rolls around. But while butternut squash soup is hands down one of my favorite fall foods, my love for butternut doesn’t end there. When I’m not making soup, I like to simply roast butternut squash. Golden brown, caramelized, and seasoned with salt and pepper, it has a delectable sweet and salty taste and buttery texture. If you’ve never roasted butternut squash before, you have to try it this fall!

Today, I’m sharing my go-to roasted butternut squash recipe. It’s super easy – it requires 4 ingredients (squash, salt, pepper, and olive oil) and 10 minutes of active prep – but it’s delicious nonetheless. It’s good enough to enjoy on its own as a side dish, but it also amps up the fall flavor in all sorts of recipes – bowls, salads, soups, and more! Let’s cook.

How to Cook Butternut Squash

Making roasted butternut squash is easy! Here’s what you need to do:

Start by peeling the squash. Peeling winter squash can be intimidating, but don’t let butternut scare you. The skin is smooth and relatively thin, and it isn’t ridged. To peel it, use a good vegetable peeler, and work downwards from the stem, peeling off long strips. Use short strokes to trim off any remaining skin at the base of the squash. That’s it!

Next, cut the squash. Chop off the stem and slice the squash in half vertically. Set the cut side of the halves facing up, and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. If your squash is too hard to safely cut, pop it in the microwave or warm it in the oven for a few minutes until slightly softened.

Discard the seeds, and dice the remaining squash into 1-inch cubes. You might get some funky shapes around the base of the squash, where the seeds were scooped out. Just do the best you can to cut the pieces evenly – the closer they are in size, the more evenly they’ll cook.

Finally, it’s time to bake! Spread the cubed squash in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle it with olive oil, and toss it with generous pinches of salt and pepper (note: a sprinkle of fresh rosemary or fresh thyme at this step would also be delicious). Make sure to leave a little space between each cube – this way, the squash will get nicely crisp and brown in the oven.

Transfer the baking sheet to a 400-degree oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the squash is tender and golden brown. Then, enjoy!

What to Do with Roasted Butternut Squash

Golden brown and caramelized, baked butternut squash is delicious on its own as a simple side dish. Just sprinkle it with chopped parsley, and serve! But your options don’t end there. There are a tons of ways to use roasted butternut squash. Here are just a few of my favorites:

• Add it to an autumn pasta like stuffed shells, orecchiette, or spaghetti.
• Blend it into hummus.
• Stuff it into enchiladas or tacos.
• Toss it into a salad.
• Blend it into soup. Try the Sheet Pan Squash Soup on page 87 of Love and Lemons Every Day!
• Add it to an easy grain bowl with quinoa, greens, your favorite protein, and generous drizzles of tahini sauce.
• Top it onto a burrito bowl with cilantro lime rice, guacamole, pico de gallo or tomatillo salsa, black beans, and chipotle sauce or cilantro lime dressing.
• Or skip the salt and pepper, and puree it into pudding!