Butternut squash is a delicious and versatile vegetable that is seldom allowed to reach its quotidian culinary dietary potential, mainly due to bad cooking instructions on supermarket packaging.
This comically shaped vegetable (Ooh, er, Missus!) was once the subject of a theology paper I wrote on "the proof of God through flavour". It didn't go down well. Perhaps its reception would have been more favourable if it weren't graded by someone brought up on the tradition of "meat and two veg" who was later forced to admit that he had never even seen a butternut squash, let alone tasted a well cooked example thereof.
I kid you not, I actually spent almost two decades in the UK remembering this vegetable treat from childhood, occasionally finding it in "ethnic" markets to my great delight until it became a more regular feature of our supermarkets.
Sadly, that was only a slight improvement. Certainly, the cooking instructions I find attached to this vegetable in Western Europe even today, particularly of the pre-peeled and cubed variety, are an atrocity against this noble veggie.
In reality, there are very few things you need to know to get the butternut squash right; delivering its unique, signature flavour. As you might guess from the name, one quality is a buttery creaminess. The other is a nutty sweetness that is simply exquisite and can be delivered every time if following only a few guidelines even a kitchen novice can get right every time.
Here are the two simple rules.
Boil big
Whether you plan to use it in a risotto, mash it up with potatoes to make a less expected stoemp or add cold to a salad, these are the basic rules about butternut squash
1) never peel it before cooking because the skin keeps in the succulence
2) never cube it or cut it up into tiny pieces. You may encounter "authentic" Italian recipes about adding it to risottos raw, peeled and cubed. But these are all written by foreign chefs or Italians who don't know what they're doing. No! Never!
The only time it is even vaguely acceptable to peel and cube butternut squash before cooking is if you are making a soup and, even then, it's questionable.
Unless roasting (see below), this is how you should always cook butternut squash:
Scrub the skin with a firm brush under running cold water. Cut in half at the point that the "straight" bit starts to become a comic bulbous shape; cut each of these in half again. (In the case of a humungous squash, you can cut each of these in half in turn)
From the sections with the seeds, the bulbous sections of the fruit (yeah, kids, it's technically one) scrape out the seeds and sinews with a spoon. Don't worry too much that you get them all: once cooked the remainder will come away more easily
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and then drop in the segments of squash. - We're using the tried and tested 19th-century guideline that you place vegetables that grow underground in the pot before it comes to the boil and those that grow above ground in the water once it is boiling. Butternut squash grows above ground for any of you townies who were wondering
Bring the barely submerged butternut squash to a furious boil, cover and cook for approx. 15 mins. When you can easily press a fork through the flesh, it's cooked
You can serve it as it is, dressing with a knob of butter or olive oil as a delicious accompaniment to many dishes. In the vast majority of cases, the skin will be soft enough to eat and this is advised for all you fans of fibre.
Alternatively, you can allow it to cool and add to any number of dishes such as pastas and risottos; a frisky paella or, mashed and mixed with chopped onions, feta or haloumi and capers to bake delicious vegetarian filo parcels.
Completely roasted
Roasted butternut squash is delicious and has the additional benefit that it is generally lower in carbs compared with potatoes etc. This is one of the easiest ways to cook it.
Scrub the skin with a firm brush under running cold water. Cut into segments the size of parsnips you would roast or alternatively roast as halves. Scrape out the seeds and sinews using a spoon. Don't worry that you don't get them all: once cooked the remainder can be easily removed while plated by the diners
Add to the roasting dish in which you may be roasting your potatoes, sweet potatoes or parsnips. Treat the same way and don't worry if the edges blacken/caramelise. It's an exquisite accompaniment to a traditional Sunday roast, game dishes or other hearty fare.
You can fancy-schmancy it up with garlic, herbs or even some cheese in the final stages
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