With Thanksgiving coming soon, here’s a recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash featuring goat cheese, fresh thyme, toasted walnuts, and maple syrup. The combination of flavors is delicious, and your family will love it. Let me show you how to make this wonderful side dish.
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Roasted butternut squash with goat cheese is a great recipe to keep in mind for the Holiday Season. The sweetness of the squash combined with creamy goat cheese pairs perfectly with turkey or ham.
The Roasted Squash With Goat Cheese Recipe
This roasted butternut squash recipe is a grown-up version with flavors that complement each other perfectly. The squash is sweetened with Maple Syrup. The walnuts add a nice crunch. The tangy Goat Cheese tames the sugar of the maple syrup, and the fresh thyme adds beautiful flavor. This is why the recipe ingredients work so well together.
All the Ingredients You Will Need
- Butternut squash: Choose a squash with smooth, even skin with no bruises or dark spots. When you pick up the squash, it should feel heavy for its size, and then you’ll know that you’re getting a good one.
- Butter
- Cooking oil spray
- Toasted walnuts
- Fresh thyme
- Maple syrup
- Goat cheese
- Salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne pepper
Preparing The Squash
Use a sharp knife to cut off the stem end. Then use a knife or a sharp vegetable peeler to remove the skin. I use a Swiss peeler (#ad) as in the picture. They work great.
Butternut squash is easy to cut into cubes or slices once it’s peeled. Rock your knife back and forth to cut the thicker parts. Keep your fingers out of the way…the squash can be kind of hard to cut.
Cut the squash pieces in half between the neck and the bulb. Then halve those two pieces vertically. Chop the butt end off and remove the seeds and fibers. Then cut the squash into 1/2″ slices.
Prepping The Squash For The Hot Oven
Place the squash slices into a large bowl, add melted butter, salt, and black pepper, and toss to coat. Spray a large-rimmed baking sheet with cooking oil, then place the squash in the pan in a single layer.
Place the sheet into the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and flip the squash to the other side with a small turner.
What’s great about this recipe is that you can get the squash baking, then prep the other ingredients without feeling rushed.
Toast and chop the walnuts. Here is a simple technique of how to Toast Nuts in the Microwave.
Strip the thyme leaves from their stems…measure out the maple syrup. Next, get your serving platter ready so you can serve this right out of the oven.
Drizzle on the maple syrup and top with chopped walnuts, crumbled goat cheese, and thyme.
The flavor of the roasted butternut squash is unbelievable with the creaminess and tang of the goat cheese, the crunch of walnuts, and the sweetness of the maple syrup…and the slight bit of heat you get from the cayenne pepper. This is definitely a kicked-up version of roasted butternut squash, worthy of your Thanksgiving table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Keep your uncut squash in a cool, dark location.
An uncut squash should last for 2 to 3 months when kept out of light and in a cool location.
It can be kept refrigerated in an airtight container for 3 to 5 days.
You can freeze both cooked and raw squash. Defrosted cooked squash may have some water, which should be removed before using.
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This recipe is a tested winner and gets devoured by my family each time I make it. Serve this butternut squash dish with your Thanksgiving meal and surprise your family with its goodness.
The simple ingredients and instructions are in the recipe card below.
Roasted Butternut Squash Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash, 2 to 3 lbs
- 3 tbsp butter
- cooking oil spray
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
- 1/3 cup toasted, chopped walnuts
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, (big pinch)
- 2 oz. goat cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- Peel the outer skin and light colored flesh from the squash, cut off the stem end, then cut into two pieces at the waist, (this will make it much easier and safer to halve the squash lengthwise).
- Halve the two sections, lengthwise and cut off the bottom end and remove the seeds with a spoon. Cut the squash into 1/2" slices.
- Melt the butter, and put the squash into a large bowl. pour in the melted butter, salt and pepper and toss by hand to fully coat the pieces.
- Spray a large, rimmed baking sheet lightly with cooking oil, then lay in the slices of squash, preferably so that they are not touching. Bake for 20 minutes, turning the sheet around after 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and use a small metal turner to flip each slice to the other side. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the squash is tender.
- While the squash is baking, mix the maple syrup and cayenne pepper in a small bowl. Strip the leaves of fresh thyme off the stems. Toast and chop the walnuts. Crumble the goat cheese.
- Remove from the oven and layer the pieces on a serving dish then drizzle on the maple syrup, sprinkle with the walnuts, goat cheese and thyme leaves.
- Serve right away or at room temperature.
Notes
- Recipe adapted from Cook's Illustrated.
Nutrition
Angie
I cheated and purchased pre-cut squash. The dish came together very easy and was very pretty. Most importantly it was delicious. This is a keeper recipe. I upgraded to a very nice goat cheese.
Joe Boyle
Thank you for the comment Angie. I’m glad you found my recipe.
DARIA FRANCES ROURK
Absolutely delicious!
Joe Boyle
Thank you Daria.
Joe
Very tasty.
Tracy
Joe, I made this last night to “practice” for Thanksgiving. It was great! Used Feta, rather than goat cheese and didn’t have fresh thyme, but would definitely call it a hit. Not too sweet, which is what I looking for.
Alan Howie
Looks and sounds delicious!
MaryJo
We had this with dinner a couple of nights ago and it is still my favorite way to have squash. That tiny bit of cayenne really hits it out of the park for me.
Josie
This is such an easy recipe but it makes plain old roasted squash so much better! The only thing I didn’t have on hand was goat cheese, but I substituted a little whole-milk greek yogurt and it was perfect. The rest of the ingredients I always have on hand. This is my new go-to squash recipe!
Joe
Nice Josie. Thanks for the comment.