Squashes are so great and versatile. I have been using them for a while now. I have many clients and friends that are new to them and ask me all the time how to cook them, how the heck to cut some of them cause they are not all easy! So this is the reasoning behind this post. Some people think its all supposed to come naturally, well guess what it doesn't! Cooking takes practice, patients, trial and error. However there is no reason why we all can't help each other out and give up our tricks of the trade right? So these are my tricks and if you have any of your own please feel free to share below!
Acorn Squash- this little guy is so yummy. Probably one of the easiest to cut and prepare. Simply use a large kitchen knife, and cut it in half. No need to cut the top where the stem is. Once you have cut it in half, use a spoon and scoop out the seeds. Now if you want, you can save those seeds. You can do that for all the squashes, this one seems to have the most in side though. If you save the seeds, rinse them off and make sure you get ride of all the squash excess. Pat dry with a towel and roast in the oven for a nice snack. I usually dry roast them with a little chili powder, garlic powder salt. Moving on to cooking the acorn squash, rub the insides with just a little bit of oil(1 Tbsp), season if you like and place on a baking sheet inside face down in just a little bit of water, so make sure your baking sheet has a lip. The oven should be at 350 and bake for 30-40 mins. Some of the different seasonings I use would be: Garlic, chili powder(savory) or Cinnamon(sweet). You can bake it then scoop it out of its skin and serve or you flip it over and place some filling such as chicken or ground turkey(already cooked) and mixed with tomato sauce and re-bake then serve in its skin. Enjoy!
Butternut Squash- one of my favorites! I love this one, so many things I use it for. Same think with the acorn squash, you can keep the seeds but this one doesn't ever have very many seeds so I don't bother. So lets get down to business, cut in half and scoop out the seeds that are located in the base. Same as the acorn, rub the inside with a little bit of oil. This one will also be baked at 350 but a little longer, 40-45mins. From there decided how you want it cooked, do you want a soft mashed side or diced cubes. If you want it as a mashed side simply bake inside face down. If you want a cubed roasted squash you must now peal the skin before baking. Once pealed, dice up the squash. I normally bake this for 30 mins with my choice of seasoning. If I want to use this as a breakfast side I will shorten the baking process by 10mins and no seasoning, because later at breakfast time I will pull it out from the fridge and sauté in a tablespoon of coconut oil with seasoning of my choice. Then we serve it up with some eggs, they are our substitute for potatoes since we mainly eat Paleo. If I do this, I do freeze half of the diced squash so it doesn't go bad and I pull it out when the other half has been all used up.
Spaghetti Squash- Oh boy, no this one is a tuff nut to crack! The oven temp is the same, 350 and the cooking time is 40-45 mins. The hard part is getting this one open! Go get the biggest knife you own, dig the pointy end in to the side of it you are going to cut it in half like all the others. Now what I do is once the knife is in deep enough I pick the entire thing up(knife and squash together) and slam it back down on the counter. I know this sounds crazy but it is the easiest way, I've been doing it for 4 years with success every time! Once you slam it once or twice the crack sound be working its way around, now just follow it with our knife until you get all the way around and ta-dah! Now just like the others, scoop out the seeds(this one normally has a lot too so I roast the seeds). Rub the inside with a little oil. This one has a lot of different options, bake inside down for a softer constancy or inside up if you want to use as a pasta substitute. Once the baking process is done, take out and let cool. Once cooled, get your big fork out and fork out the insides. From here I use it in may different ways. I use it as a pasta substitute, a simple side dish, and you can even sauté it in a little ghee with some italian seasoning to produce a dish like butter noodles. It has so many different uses, and I love them all. Do you have any other dishes you like to use this one in, I am interested to hear them all.
I hope this was helpful and informative. Now you have the knowledge, get a squash and get to it. Enjoy!
