Chopping Butternut Squash

A pile of fresh, evenly diced orange butternut squash pieces spread out on a wooden cutting board.

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I think half the reason people don't eat butternut squash is fear of cutting it. (It me) Well, fear be gone! Cutting a squash is simpler than it looks. I’m going to show you how a real deal (charlatan) chef does it, with all the best tricks to make it as easy as possible. The next time you make Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, Honey Roasted Butternut Squash Salad, or Butternut Squash Lasagna, you’ll impress yourself with how quickly you get this done (all fingers intact!)

Prep Time10

Total Time10

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 56kcal

Author: The Food Charlatan

Equipment

Ingredients

1 butternut squash

Instructions

Start by peeling your butternut squash. Make sure you peel enough that you can see the orange flesh. One peel will usually show a still-too-white outer edge layer. See photos. Just make sure you peel enough that you can see bright orange all the way around.
Set up a cutting board on a towel or silpat so it doesn't slip around. Get out your big chef's knife. Make sure it's SHARP. Call for moral support. Shoo the cats and kids out of the kitchen. Make a vertical slice all the way down the center of the butternut squash.
Use a canning lid to scrape out the seeds and goop from the cavity of the squash. Canning lids have sharper edges than a spoon, and they gently cut through the strands and pulp.
If you are roasting the whole butternut, like for Butternut Squash Soup, you're done! If you are chopping the whole squash, continue on:
Lay your butternut flat side down. Slice off the ends of the butternut: the top with the stem and the bottom little nobby thing. Nobby: a technical term.
Cut each half of the butternut squash in half crosswise, not lengthwise. (Hamburger, not hot dog, for you ancients like me. Do teachers still use this??) You want to halve the butternut so that the bulbous bottom half is now separate from the lengthy top half.
Slice each quarter of the butternut lengthwise, into long pieces. Keep all the slices upright in their original placement, if possible.
For the bottom half of the butternut (the two halves with the cavity), the pieces will not stay as well in their upright placement. Lay them on their sides and chop into bite size pieces.
For the top half of the butternut, keep all the slices upright in their original placement.
Slice the long pieces the other way, so it looks like a grid from overhead.
One row at a time, lay the long skinny pieces down on their sides and chop them in half or into thirds.
Finish by making sure each piece of butternut that you have chopped is roughly uniform in size, so they cook evenly.
For roasting, layer the squash on TWO sheet pans, so they can spread out and have space on the pan. Roast at 450 degrees F with 1 and 1/2 teaspoons oil and 3/4 teaspoon salt on each pan. Roast for about 30 minutes.
I love to use this butternut for Butternut Squash Lasagna!

Nutrition