26 Snug Butternut Squash Recipes to Make This Season (2024)

It's butternut squash season and the versatile vegetable has our attention. Soft and creamy when cooked, with the ability to taste sweet or savory depending on the preparation, butternut squash yields itself to a variety of recipes for sides and mains. Add it to macaroni and cheese, puree it into soup, and even use it to bake a meatless Parmesan. Here are a bunch of warming butternut squash recipes we love.

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Roasted Butternut Squash with Curry Leaves

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"A sprinkling of marash chile flakes and curry leaves with coconut oil add a bit of heat and an intoxicating fragrance," says cookbook author Nik Sharma about this delicious side dish, "while the black mustard seeds add a hint of nuttiness." If you can't find marash chile flakes, Aleppo pepper can be substituted.

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Roasted Butternut Squash Parmesan

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To make this fantastic vegetarian Parmesan, cookbook author Raquel Pelzel first roasts seasoned half-moons of squash. The squash gets layered with marinara and three cheeses, then baked until it's tender and golden. To finish, Pelzel sprinkles the dish with crisp homemade breadcrumbs.

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Curried Squash Galette

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With a super-flaky crust (the secret: frozen grated butter) and a lightly spiced sweet-savory winter squash filling, this rustic galette from Food & Wine's Justin Chapple makes for a perfect vegetarian meal.

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Butternut Squash and Pork Soup with Fish Sauce and Tender Herbs

26 Snug Butternut Squash Recipes to Make This Season (4)

In Vietnam, kabocha squash is simmered with pork to make a soup called canh bi do thit heo. This riff on that classic dish swaps in mild butternut, which holds its shape well and absorbs the rich flavors of the broth and pork while cooking quickly.

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Lamb and Butternut Squash Tagine with Apricots

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Savory lamb, salty olives, and ras el hanout (a North African spice blend of coriander, cumin, and a range of warm spices) are balanced by sweet butternut squash, apricots, and a touch of honey.

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Roasted Butternut Squash with Chorizo-Spiced Kale

26 Snug Butternut Squash Recipes to Make This Season (6)

With its earthy sweetness and dense texture, butternut squash makes a hearty vegetable steak. At Chaval in Portland, Maine, chef Damian Sansonetti highlights its complexity with his chorizo spice mix; he blooms the blend of cumin, Pimentón, and coriander in oil to release their aroma.

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Roasted Butternut Squash with Sage

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This five-ingredient dish could not be easier to make. The classic, delicious combination of squash and sage is tossed in olive oil and simply seasoned before it's roasted to lightly browned perfection.

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Butternut Squash Casserole with Leeks, Prosciutto, and Thyme

26 Snug Butternut Squash Recipes to Make This Season (8)

This luscious squash-studded savory bread pudding is the ideal accompaniment to roasted meats and poultry. You can also cut it into large squares and serve it as a main course with a green salad on the side.

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Roast Chicken with Butternut Squash

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Chicken quarters roasted with golden squash and sage are nice for a chilly autumn evening. To help the squash brown evenly, be sure to spoon off the fat from the roasting pan after removing the breasts. The butternut squash can be swapped out for your favorite winter squash.

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Winter Squash Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage

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"This classic northern Italian combo of sage, Parmesan, gnocchi, and brown butter is one of my top five desert-island dishes," chef Andrew Zimmern writes. For ease of preparation, the uncooked gnocchi can be made up to a month ahead and frozen.

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Mashed Potatoes with Butternut Squash

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This dish calls for equal parts Yukon Gold potatoes and butternut squash, fabulously enriched with half-and-half and butter. The key to an ultra-fluffy texture is to use a ricer, but you can also pass the potatoes through a food mill or fine-mesh sieve, or very gently mash by hand.

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Spice-Roasted Butternut Squash

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Cumin, coriander, and cayenne pepper bring warmth and spice to this simple, tender roasted squash dish.

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Gingered Butternut Squash Soup with Spicy Pecan Cream

26 Snug Butternut Squash Recipes to Make This Season (13)

Chef Dean Fearing loves the holiday feel of butternut squash, especially when it's combined with ginger, as it is for his smooth, gently sweet soup. He tops it with lightly spiced whipped cream flecked with chopped pecans for contrast, flavor, and some all-important crunch. "I think everything should have a little bit of crunch to it," he says.

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Farfalle with Spicy Sausage and Butternut Squash

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Sweet butternut squash is the perfect counterpoint to spicy hot Italian sausage in this warming winter pasta.

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Baked Butternut Squash and Cheese Polenta

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This crusty baked polenta is swirled with mashed butternut squash, onion, pine nuts, and smoked Gouda cheese. It's excellent served with sautéed mushrooms, braised greens, or tomato sauce.

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Butternut Squash Risotto with Crispy Pancetta

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Feel free to exchange bacon for pancetta and any type of winter squash for the butternut used in this simple and satisfying risotto.

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Butternut Squash-Polenta Gratin

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Sweet puréed squash comes together with nutty polenta in this warming gratin. The dish can be assembled without its topping and refrigerated up to five days in advance before baking.

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Butternut Squash Soup with Crisp Pancetta

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In this recipe, butternut squash is first buttered, seasoned, and roasted with pancetta slices draped over the top to infuse flavor. The finished soup is pureed until creamy smooth and served with the crispy crumbled pancetta for textural contrast.

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Winter Squash with Savoy Cabbage Gratin and Garlic Crema

26 Snug Butternut Squash Recipes to Make This Season (19)

San Francisco chef Matthew Accarrino looks to cornstarch to thicken the creamy milk-based roasted garlic sauce here. It's a rich but nutritious combination of winter squash with cabbage, all topped with crunchy hazelnuts.

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Curry-Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpeas

26 Snug Butternut Squash Recipes to Make This Season (20)

After tossing the squash and chickpeas with curry and cayenne, Melissa Rubel Jacobson roasts them, then drizzles the dish with a cooling cilantro-spiked yogurt sauce.

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Lentils with Butternut Squash and Merguez Sausage

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This dish from chef Mourad Lahlou of Aziza in San Francisco comes together in four steps, and since the sausage is cooked separately, it's a meal you can serve to both vegetarians and meat-eaters at the same time.

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Golden Macaroni and Cheese with Butternut Squash Puree

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The neck of the butternut squash is easy to peel and cube, making it perfect for easy pasta dishes. This recipe is a great way to use up that pesky bottom half as well — the halved squash is simply baked until soft, and then the flesh is scooped out and mashed so it can be used in the sauce.

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Squash Gratin with Poblanos and Cream

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Los Angeles chef Julie Robles makes this cheesy vegetarian gratin in individual dishes with a topping of candied pumpkin seeds. Our simplified version here is for one big gratin garnished with plain toasted pumpkin seeds.

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Spice-Roasted Butternut Squash with Herbed Millet and Tahini Dressing

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This is the perfect make-ahead meal or dish to take along to a gathering. The squash and tahini sauce can be made a day ahead, while the millet will store happily for a couple of hours.

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Risotto Nero with Squash and Burrata

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Chef Nancy Oakes of San Fransisco's Boulevard makes this gorgeous risotto with Venere black rice, a naturally black short-grain rice. The glossy grains are especially striking served with the golden butternut squash puree and creamy white burrata.

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Coconut Chickpeas with Winter Squash

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Starchy, slightly sweet plantains are a natural addition to winter squash. Here, New York chef JJ Johnson simmers both, along with canned chickpeas, in coconut milk that's been steeped with aromatics. The result is creamy, fragrant, and so comforting.

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