How Prepare Butternut Squash Photo Tutorial

See that funny guy up above?  He looks kind of like the start of a balloon animal to me.  He’s a butternut squash and I decided I wanted to try one last week because I don’t think I ever have before.  Don’t let the mild exterior fool you, inside he’s a bright orangey yellow and packed with fiber.  Plus he’s full of nutrients, especially vitamin A, we’re talking 300% your daily value in 1/2 cup of cubed squash.  What a nutrition powerhouse!  Here’s a quick photo tutorial on how to peel and seed the squash, with a recipe soon to follow.

Start by turning the squash on it’s side and cutting the long neck off the fat round body.

Then cut the top off of the neck, about an inch down.  You should now have three pieces and you can throw away the cap with the stem.

The next step is to start peeling the squash.  I like to do the neck first, you can use a vegetable peeler but if the skin is thick and takes a couple swipes to get off…

…I suggest turning the squash on end and using your knife to thinly slice the peel away.

Next stand the squash body on it’s end and begin carefully slicing away the peel.

Next you want to cut the body in half and expose all those lovely seeds.  Use a spoon to start scraping out the seeds and stringy parts just like a pumpkin.

Try and get most of the stringy part out of there by scraping hard with your spoon.  Don’t throw the seeds away!  You can roast them like pumpkin seeds or acorn squash seeds.  Just check on them every few minutes as they’re smaller and softer so will cook faster.

Now you can start chopping the body and neck into bite sized cubes.

Congrats!  You now have about 2 cups of chopped butternut squash to play with.  Discard your peels and the guts, roast your seeds, and have fun with your squash.  If you’re not sure what to do with it, check back in Friday when I’ll have a delicious vegetarian Greek stew for you!