I love squash, but cooking squash used to to be a huge struggle for me because I felt like the act of cutting the squash in half for roasting was too much of an effort (and honestly risk too – I hate trying to navigate large slicing with knives!). However, after some research and “trial and error,” I discovered that’s it’s actually SUPER easy to cook at squash whole and there’s no need to half it and season it/drizzle it in olive oil/etc. before cooking. This method will work with any squash (acorn squash, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, kabocha squash, etc.) and the only item that will need adjusted is the cooking time based on the squash size. Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 Squash of Choice (Kabocha, Acorn, Spaghetti, Butternut, etc.)
Roasting Squash
- First, line a metal roasting pan with foil (this helps for easy clean-up!).
- Then, preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Rinse and dry squash.
- Take knife and make large, deep slits all over the squash. This helps the squash cook evenly and also not explode in your oven (because that unfortunately can happen haha!).
- Roast a large squash for a total of 80 minutes (but flip at 40 minutes – use oven mitts or a spatula and carefully do this). If your squash is smaller, cut the time to 60 minutes total.
- Once the squash is done roasting (skin should look browned/slightly wrinkly in spots, allow to cool to room temperature (or a temperature that is safe to the touch for cutting).
- Once the squash is cool, cut the squash lengthwise in half. Scoop out the seeds (reserve these for toasting later!).
- Use a spoon and brush down the sides of the squash to get the roasted flesh.
- Leftovers can be refrigerated and stored for around 3 to 5 days.
- Enjoy as desired!
Alysha Melnyk is the Founder and Content Creator of The Kitchenologist©, a food blog dedicated to healthy eating and kitchen experiments. Alysha combined her background in biology with her passion for making food delicious, eye-catching, and accessible. When she’s not cooking in the kitchen or dreaming up a recipe, Alysha works full time as an Implementation Manager at ECRI, an international medical nonprofit located in suburban Philadelphia that is dedicated to improving patient safety worldwide. Alysha finds her many career passions revolve around the power of knowledge and that equipping people with the right tools and resources will help them make better informed decisions.
