In my recipe, Creamy Butternut Squash Soup, I describe cooking butternut squash by placing it in the oven at 350 F face down in a little water for about 45-50 minutes. After it is cooked, it is super easy to just scoop out the butternut squash.
I usually prefer the “bake” method because it is the easiest; you don’t have to go through the process of peeling the squash. However, it actually takes the longest because of the bake time in the oven. One way around this is to bake the squash the night before you plan to use it while you are fixing your dinner. It doesn’t take that much more time and then it is cooked for you when you want to use it the next day.
If you are looking for quicker ways to cook your squash for your soup, you may want to consider the following ideas:
Steam the squash: First, peel the squash with a good vegetable peeler and cut off the ends. Cut the squash lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Then cut the squash into fourths, and each piece in half again. Then begin slicing the squash into thin slices. Steam the pieces in a pot with a couple of inches of water and a steamer basket. This method will take about 20 min. start to finish (about 10-15 minutes of steam time.)
Find prepared raw butternut squash in your produce section: If you area stretched for time, you can try to find a package of already peeled, seeded and cut squash in the produce section of your grocery store. You can then cut the pieces down smaller to make steaming time shorter or just steam the pieces as is. Although this makes things faster, I don’t prefer this method because it causes unnecessary waste.
Find frozen squash in the freezer section: Cascadian Farms makes a package of frozen butternut squash that tastes very good. It will be in the natural or organic section of the grocery store or at a health food store. You can defrost it over night in the fridge or in some warm water before you want to use it. The package may say to cook the squash in the plastic bag but I prefer to take it out and just add it to the other soup ingredients. You can even cook it from frozen. The great thing about this is that it is already blended.
This is definitely the easiest and fastest way to cook your soup. Also, although there is packaging, it is a recyclable cardboard box and a small plastic bag verses the Styrofoam plate that comes with the raw prepared squash.
Eat it Raw: Yes, you can even eat this vegetable raw. You can shred it and put it in salads or you can even made a raw soup simliar to a cooked version. There is a raw butternut squash soup recipe in a raw cookbook that I’ve made. I remember it being good but a heck of a lot of work to blend up the butternut squash raw. But it does bypass the cooking step!
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