Paula Deen's Baked Acorn Squash with Brown Sugar - Recipe Diaries (2024)

FAQs

How do you cook Ina Garten acorn squash? ›

Place 1/2 tablespoon butter and ½ tablespoon maple syrup in the cavity of each squash. Brush the cut sides with olive oil and sprinkle the squash with 3 teaspoons kosher salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Roast for 40-60 minutes, depending on the size of the squash, until tender when pierced with a small knife.

You can quickly soften an acorn squash before cutting it by using a microwave. Using a knife or fork, make a few small incisions in the squash to allow steam to escape. Place the squash in a microwavable bowl and heat on high for three minutes.

Good news: you don't need to peel acorn squash. Its hard, grooved skin softens significantly as it cooks, and it's edible, too. If you do want to remove the skin, wait until after you cook it, at which point it will peel right off.

Acorn squash is milder in taste and slightly more fibrous in texture than butternut squash: Its sweet, nutty flavor is additionally muted by the watery character of its flesh. Still, most recipes that call for acorn squash can be made with another members of the squash family, such as Hubbard or butternut.

Putting it cut-side down creates a sort-of steam chamber for the flesh, helping it cook faster and retain moisture (no dried out squash here!).

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.

Do not wash squash before storing. Keep squash away from raw meat and meat juices to prevent cross-contamination. Store whole winter squash in a cool (45 to 50 degrees F) place. If stored properly, most varieties will keep up to 3 months.

For instance, you can add roasted squash to a fall salad, cook it alongside chicken, or serve it up with bacon and eggs. Of course, one of the most popular ways to serve acorn squash is to stuff it. The edible bowls act as a vessel for anything from mac and cheese to sausage to taco fillings.

The higher the levels of cucubitacin, the more bitter the squash will taste. The most likely cause for a bitter taste in squash is due to an environmental stress of some sort, most likely a wide temperature flux or irregular irrigation. Either of these will create an excess of cucurbitacins to concentrate in the fruit.

If you pick too early, the flesh will not be fully developed and the squash will lack flavor and not be that wonderfully vegetal sweet that is the wonder of butternut, honeynut, delicata, acorn, pumpkin and kabocha, among dozens of other winter squash.

How can you tell if acorn squash has gone bad? ›

Signs Your Squash Has Gone Bad

Appearance: Check for visual signs of rotting, like soft spots or moldy skin. The exterior of a squash past its prime will be wrinkled, shriveled, leathery.

Roasting zucchini at a high temperature instead of baking or sautéing helps develop browning and a slight char on the outside, which keeps it from getting soggy. It also concentrates the flavors, giving this subtle veg a little more oomph.

A smaller vegetable than many of its squash cousins, the acorn squash has a soft, tender skin that cooks beautifully along with the flesh. It can be cut up and roasted, or stuffed and baked whole, and the skin will be just as tasty as the rest.

After softening the squash, add to cold water and chill for 5 minutes until able to handle. The safest way to peel an acorn squash is to use a vegetable peeler. You can peel it while whole, or cut it down into slices or wedges and then peel.