Roasting is one of my favorite ways to cook just about anything — vegetables, chicken, shrimp, even fruit. It's hard to beat the caramelization and depth of flavor you get from roasting. It's a great paleo cooking technique. When you roast something, it pretty much cooks itself so there is very little hands-on time. And you get a lot of flavor from the food without having to add a lot of extra ingredients. Most things need only a quick toss in olive oil, salt and pepper. Or if you can roast it whole in its skin, you really don't need to add anything to it.
This is the easiest way to roast a whole squash or pumpkin. Wash the squash, stab it a few times to make steam holes and put it in the oven until it's soft. That's it. No wrestling with the squash to cut through the tough skin, no peeling, no chopping. Once it's roasted, it will cut open like butter. Scoop the seeds out with a spoon and peel the skin off with your fingers (make sure you let it cool first so you don't burn your hands). I use this method whenever the squash will be mashed or pureed. The flesh can be used right away, or frozen until needed. I usually freeze the pureed squash in one cup portions for easy use in recipes like soup, pie and breads.
I also use this method to roast spaghetti squash. Once it's roasted, cut it around the equator and scoop out the seeds. Use a fork to separate the spaghetti squash "noodles" in each half.
Ingredients
- 1 whole squash or pumkin
Instructions
- Set oven to 375 degrees.
- Wash squash, cut a few deep slits to release steam and place squash in baking dish.
- Roast squash until soft and easily pierced, 1 to 1-½ hours depending on size of squash.
- Cut squash open and allow to cool until cool enough to handle, then remove seeds and peel.
Carolyn
I love roasted squash. Usually I remove the seeds and soak them and then roast them separately for a snack. Roasting them right in the squash would be easier. When you cook them this way, are they still edible?
Love your blog. You have lots of great recipes! Thank you.
Lisa
Hi Carolyn – great question. I haven't tried drying the seeds after roasting the squash. Let me know if you experiment with this.
Glad you like the blog – thanks for visiting!
mekkiec
I love roasting my winter squashes! I usually cut mine first, them lay them face down on some tin foil before putting them in the oven. It makes it a little more difficult to cut, but when I do my pumpkins this way, the skin peels right off!
Alina
Great idea! Thank you Lisa.
How much longer does it take to cook this way as opposed to cutting the squash/pumpkin in half?
Thank you.
Lisa
Hi Alina, that really depends on the size of your squash. You really just want to cook it until it's soft. It may take a little longer but it's worth not having to struggle with the knife 🙂
Andrés
Hello, how are you? This is an awesome post.
I have a question: I've seen many recepies with spaghetti squash and many different types of sauces; nevertheless, here in Venezuela, spaghetti squash it's not a very common type of squash. Can I do this recepy with a regular pumpkin (I don't know if that is the name, but here is very common, the big orange ones)?
If I can, does it have some specific requirements for cooking it?
Thanks a lot.
Lisa
This recipe should work with most types of winter squash but you may need to adjust the cooking time.