Roasted acorn squash was a staple in my house growing up. It seemed like almost every other meal during the fall would feature this sweet and delectable squash. And now that I’m an adult who cooks their own acorn squash I can see why. It’s an incredibly easy side dish to make!
Honestly, all you really have to do is split the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and bake them. Ok, there’s a little bit more to it than that, but that’s basically the gist. The only difficult part about making acorn squash is deciding how you want to use it. You can stuff it with a mixture of rice and vegetables for a full meal. You can use it to make creamy squash soup. Or you can keep it traditional and roast it with a brown sugar and butter glaze. And since that last method is how my mother always prepared them, that is what we will be doing today.
Tips, Tricks & Suggestions
- Make sure that you are very careful when splitting your squash in half because the skin is very tough. I recommend that you use a sharp chef’s knife, and set the squash up on its stem in order to stabilize it. However, if it is still too difficult to cut through you can always microwave the squash for a minute or two to soften the skin.
- Make sure to save the seeds from your acorn squash as they can be cooked just like pumpkin seeds.
Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 1 to 1½ hours
Servings: 4
Ingredients
2 Acorn squash
4 Tablespoons of brown sugar
2 Tablespoons of butter, unsalted
A couple of pinches of cinnamon, optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, or 205 Celsius
- Prep the acorn squash: Split the squash in half and use a spoon to scoop out all of the seeds.
Then use a fork to puncture the flesh of the squash all over. This will help the glaze to seep down into the squash as it cooks. 
- Get the acorn squash ready for roasting: Place each half of squash in a large walled baking dish and fill in the cavity of each half with ½ tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Then you can sprinkle a couple of pinches of cinnamon over the top of each half if you want to. Finally, pour about ½ inch of hot water into the bottom of the baking dish.
- Roast the acorn squash: Place the squash in your heated oven and let them roast for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes take the squash out of the oven and spoon some of the melted glaze over the flesh of each squash.
Then return the squash to your oven and let them roast for another 30 minutes. After the second 30 minutes take the squash out again and check to see if they are done. To do this simply pierce them with a fork, if it goes in easily then it’s done, if it’s still tough then it’s not. So if it’s still not done then spoon some more of the glaze over each squash and return them to your oven for another 20 to 30 minutes.
- Serve the roasted acorn squash immediately and enjoy!
Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Acorn squash
- 4 Tablespoons of brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons of butter unsalted
- A couple of pinches of cinnamon optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, or 205 Celsius
- Prep the acorn squash: Split the squash in half and use a spoon to scoop out all of the seeds. Then use a fork to puncture the flesh of the squash all over. This will help the glaze to seep down into the squash as it cooks.
- Get the acorn squash ready for roasting: Place each half of squash in a large walled baking dish and fill in the cavity of each half with ½ tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Then you can sprinkle a couple of pinches of cinnamon over the top of each half if you want to. Finally, pour about ½ inch of hot water into the bottom of the baking dish.
- Roast the acorn squash: Place the squash in your heated oven and let them roast for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes take the squash out of the oven and spoon some of the melted glaze over the flesh of each squash. Then return the squash to your oven and let them roast for another 30 minutes. After the second 30 minutes take the squash out again and check to see if they are done. To do this simply pierce them with a fork, if it goes in easily then it’s done, if it’s still tough then it’s not. So if it’s still not done then spoon some more of the glaze over each squash and return them to your oven for another 20 to 30 minutes.
- Serve the roasted acorn squash immediately and enjoy!
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