Butternut Squash Pie Family Recipe - The Woks of Life (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to roast or steam butternut squash? ›

Steaming, boiling, microwaving, and pressure cooking are quick moist-heat ways to soften the flesh of this winter squash. These methods don't add much flavor, but they are great for soups and purees. Personally, roasting tastes the best.

Kabocha squash

It's gorgeous to behold and doesn't disappoint in its flavor, texture and versatility. It's sweet and earthy, has a lovely thick yet fluffy texture ... and the color, a pretty deep rusty orange that is fall in a nutshell. This is one of my favorites for pie-making.

Due to its high yield, butternut squash is my favorite option for pie, but so long as the total weight of purée remains the same, feel free to make use of alternatives like kabocha, buttercup, and acorn squash instead.

In a large bowl mix the cubed squash, garlic cloves and ginger with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the spice mix. Season with salt and pepper and scatter in a single layer in a roasting tray. Place in the preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes until tender all the way through.

While butternut squash skin is edible and it can even turn nice and crisp when roasted, many people prefer to peel it first so it's easier to eat. Butternut squash skin is smooth and thin and the best way to peel it is by using a sharp vegetable peeler.

One of the best processing pumpkins we have ever grown at our Heritage Farm headquarters in northeast Iowa. Pale-orange flesh measures up to 5" thick, and the largest fruits weigh 60-80 pounds. Firm moist flesh is excellent for making pies and for freezing. This variety works for: Steaming.

Acorn squashes are dark green, sometimes with yellow or orange patches. They are relatively small and round with sectioning similar to a pumpkin. They are sweeter than butternut squashes, and you can easily make them into dessert with some brown sugar, nuts and spices (like I do in this recipe).

Libby's, the quintessential canned pumpkin brand, uses a proprietary strain of the Dickinson pumpkin variety in their product, which is also often called a Dickinson squash. On Libby's website, it states that their product is 100 percent pumpkin.

It says it contains: pumpkin, sugar, water, eggs, enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, ferrous sulfate, niacin, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), canola and/or soybean oil, nonfat milk, corn syrup, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, spices, corn sugar, mono & diglycerides, modified food starch.

Although many consider pumpkins and squash to be the same, and use the names interchangeably, asides from the obvious difference in their shapes (pumpkins are round flattened balls, butternut squash have a longish neck and bulbous bottom), there are some other notable differences between them.

Is butternut squash as healthy as pumpkin? ›

The key differences between these two fruits are found in harvest time; pumpkins are only available September – October, sometimes November, while butternut squash is available year-round. Nutrition profile; Butternut squash is more nutritionally well-rounded but pumpkins have fewer carbs and calories.

Squashes behave very differently when cooked in the oven or on the stovetop. Generally, a squash that is roasted in the oven is going to have a much softer texture, one that can get mushy if mixed with other ingredients, but making it ideal for a purée, soup, or being mashed.

Is it better to roast butternut squash face up or down? I personally prefer to roast my butternut squash with the cut-side-up. In my opinion, roasting it cut-side-up allows for the butternut squash to caramelize, rather than just steam and cook.

Skip eating most hard-skinned squash raw. "Hard skinned squash is difficult to eat raw," Marz says. "They are usually much larger in size, have a harder flesh, and are much more fibrous." Examples of hard-skinned squash that should not be eaten raw include: pumpkins, delicate, butternut, Hubbard, and acorn.

Essentially, if your aim is to preserve nutrients, light steaming is the way to go, but the thing is, flavour and enjoyment play a major part in food, too. “If roasting vegetables means you enjoy them more, then by all means roast them,” Hope says.

Bring 1 inch of water to boil in a large saucepan fitted with a steamer basket. Add squash. Cover and steam until very tender, about 15 minutes.

Two of the best ways to cook the pumpkins for puree are steaming and roasting. I prefer steaming because it is quicker and easier when making a lot of puree at once.