With tender roasted slices of squash and a maple glaze, this Hasselback Butternut Squash recipe is a great savory and sweet side dish. It will impress everyone around the dinner table because of the delicious flavors, yes, but also because it looks so impressive and elegant. It used simple ingredients and is actually quite easy to prepare if you precook the squash to tenderize the skin.

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Butternut squash is one of the vegetables our whole family loves. The girls love the delicate slices and the taste of butternut squash, and I love how nutritious it is. As I’ve experimented with a couple different diets in my years of trying to lose baby weight, butternut squash has become one of my go-to’s when I crave something that tastes like a carb. Even though it’s very similar to sweet potatoes, this squash actually has a low glycemic index, which is a ranking of how carbs affect blood sugar.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Visual Appeal: The Hasselback technique involves making thin slices along the butternut squash, creating a visually stunning presentation when baked. This adds a level of elegance to the dish that will surely impress all your dinner guests!
Texture: The slices in a Hasselback butternut squash allow for even cooking throughout, resulting in a creamy interior and crispy edges. This contrast in texture can be very appealing to those who enjoy a variety of mouthfeel experiences in their food.
Ease of Serving: The slices in a Hasselback butternut squash make it easy to serve and portion, making it a convenient option for both everyday meals and special occasions.

Ingredients:

butternut squash
butter
maple syrup
sage
salt and black pepper
pecans (optional)

Tools:

sheet pan
parchment paper
2 wooden utensils
knife
pastry brush

How to make this Hasselback butternut squash:

Prepare the Butternut Squash

Do yourself a favor and don’t try to peel it without baking or cooking the squash for a bit. I put mine on a cookie sheet and under the oven for 20 minutes to soften the skin. You can also boil it in water. You want to rotate it and not let it get even halfway ready. 20 minutes is perfect in the oven at 350 degrees, but 10 minutes is probably more than enough if you boil it. It is crucial that you don’t let it get too tender, because it will collapse where it’s hollow as it bakes.
After you take it out and it has cooled, take a sharp knife or vegetable peeler and peel the skin off, including the white flesh.
Cut in half and scoop out the seeds and discard them. Lay the squash halves flat side down on a piece of parchment paper in your sheet pan. Don’t skip the parchment paper because the maple glaze can burn on the bottom of your pan.

Lay two wooden spoons on either side of the squash half to prevent your knife from going all the way through the squash (See image above) Then take a very sharp knife and cut thin slices, being careful not to cut through the bottom.
Repeat on both halves.

Make the Maple Butter Glaze

Melt your butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Add the maple syrup and chopped sage, salt and pepper to the butter.
Brush half of the sage butter mixture generously onto the squash with a pastry brush, don’t worry about getting into the thin slits yet. As the Hasselback squash bakes, the slices will separate a bit.
Bake it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, then take it out and baste it with the remaining herb butter. Return to the oven and let it bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Prepare for Serving

At this point your squash is ready, but you can take it a step further and top it with chopped pecans. Toss a handful of chopped pecans in a small bowl, drizzle them with a splash of maple syrup.
Layer the maple pecans along the top/center of the squash.
Turn your oven to 450 degrees, and return the squash back into the oven and let the pecans roast for about 8-10 minutes.
Remove from oven and transfer to a flat serving tray. When you do that, make sure that you give the most support to the round, hollow part, the squash will be very tender and fragile at this point.
Garnish with fresh chopped sage.

Butternut Squash is a Superfood

Butternut squash is regarded as a superfood, it is packed with essential vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants. It adds flavor to meals while being low in calories and high in fiber. A one-cup serving of cooked butternut squash provides more than 450% of the recommended dietary intake for vitamin A and over 50% of the RDI for vitamin C. Vitamin E is another antioxidant in butternut squash, and it is also packed with B vitamins, including folate and B6, which your body needs for energy and red blood cell formation.

What’s more, it’s high in magnesium, potassium, and manganese; all of which play important roles in bone health. It is a powerhouse of nutrition, and who doesn’t love nutrition that’s also delicious?!

FAQ’s:

Where does the name Hasselback come from?

I thought the name Hasselback was interesting, it reminded me of a western word or some cowboy slang, so I looked it up. Turns out it’s just the name that a restaurant gave their potatoes when they first introduced the hasselback style of cutting them in the 1940’s. It’s such a unique beautiful way to add an extra flair to veggies like potatoes or squash for a special occasion. Amazon even has a Hasselback Potato rack that helps you achieve the Hasselback technique without accidentally cutting through the entire veggie. You have to try Hasselback potatoes if you never have, they are even easier to make than the squash because you don’t have the hard shell to peel or need to worry about the hollow part collapsing.

What can I pair this recipe with?

I made a whole beer chicken with this Hasselback butternut squash this time. But it pairs so well with many other dinners:

salmon
beef roast
pork loin
grilled chicken
Thanksgiving dinner {turkey, ham}
Christmas dinner {prime rib, ham, etc}

What other flavors could I make this with?

You can play around with flavors but as long as you keep the main gist of, it will turn out wonderful. I went with sage because I had fresh sage leaves but I can’t wait to try it with fresh thyme. Thyme is AMAZING on squash. Here are a few flavor pairs I know would pair wonderfully with this squash:

honey and thyme
rosemary and maple syrup
brown sugar and basil mmmm
cinnamon and maple syrup

You would simply add those to melted butter along with some salt and use as directed in the instructions.

Can I use dried herbs?

You definitely can, I do it all the time. And it will be delicious, but fresh herbs add that burst of flavor that dried herbs don’t have. Good, just not as good as they can be.

How to store leftovers:

If you have leftovers of this recipe, just store them in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days. Reheat in the oven.

Other recipes you will enjoy:

Sauteed Butternut Squash

Hamburger Taco Soup

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

Hasselback Butternut Squash with Maple Butter Glaze

This Hasselback butternut squash is the ultimate side dish not only because of its flavors, but also because it is so impressive and elegant.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 20

Course Side Dish

Servings 8

Ingredients

1 butternut squash
3 tbls butter melted
3 tbls maple syrup
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbls chopped fresh sage or 2 tsp dried
4 tbls chopped pecans optional

Instructions

First of all, do yourself a favor and don’t try to peel it without baking or cooking the squash for a bit. I put mine on a cookie sheet and under the oven for 20 minutes to soften the skin a bit. You can also boil it in water. You just want to make sure to rotate it and not let it get even halfway ready. 20 minutes is perfect in the oven at 350 degrees, but 10 minutes is probably more than enough if you boil it. It is crucial that you don’t let it get too tender, because it will collapse where it’s hollow as it bakes.
After you take it out and it has cooled, take a sharp knife or vegetable peeler and peel the skin off, including the white flesh.
Cut it in half and scoop out the seeds and discard them. Lay the squash halves flat side down on a piece of parchment paper in your sheet pan. Don’t skip the parchment paper because the maple glaze can burn on the bottom of your pan.
Lay two wooden spoons on either side of the squash half to prevent your knife from going all the way through the squash. See image above. Then take a very sharp knife and cut thin slices, being careful not to cut through the bottom.
Repeat on both halves.
Melt your butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Add the maple syrup and chopped sage, salt and pepper to the butter.
Brush half of the sage butter mixture generously onto the squash with a pastry brush, don’t worry about getting into the thin slits yet. As the Hasselback squash bakes, the slices will separate a bit.
Bake it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, then take it out and baste it with the remaining herb butter. Return to the oven and let it bake for an additional 15 minutes.
At this point your squash is ready, but you can take it a step further and top it with chopped pecans. Toss a handful of chopped pecans in a small bowl, drizzle them with a splash of maple syrup.
Layer the maple pecans along the top/center of the squash.
Turn your oven to 450 degrees, and return the squash back into the oven and let the pecans roast for about 8-10 minutes.
Remove from oven and transfer to a flat serving tray. When you do that, make sure that you give the most support to the round, hollow part, the squash will be very tender and fragile at this point.
Garnish with fresh chopped sage.

Keyword butternut squash, hasselback squash, side dishes, sides