This recipe for roasted squash makes just 2 servings but you can easily double it.

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The perfect side dish for any time of the year is this sweet and savory Roasted Acorn Squash! It’s bursting with flavor from maple syrup and brown sugar. Everyone loves to see this on the table for dinner.

Start with whole acorn squash, cleaned, and split. Fill the halves with butter, brown sugar, and a drizzle of maple syrup and bake until soft and tender. Serve hot and watch it disappear!

Roasted Acorn Squash on a serving board.

How Do I clean winter squash?

Start by washing your squash well to remove any field dirt. If your squash is very shiny it may have also been covered in food-grade wax. You can eat food-grade wax and it won’t hurt you. If you want to remove the wax try pouring boiling hot water over it that can help remove it.

Cleaning winter squash, squash, knife, and cutting board.

Then use a large sharp knife to split the squash in half right down the middle. You can cut squash vertically, from top to bottom. Or horizontally with a top half and a bottom half. Either way works.

Use a spoon to scrape out any seeds in the cavity and just the flesh they’re attached to. Wash it out pat it dry and you’re ready to roll! By the way, the seeds can be cleaned and roasted just like you roast pumpkin seeds.

But if you plan to roast it with butter and sugar cutting it top to bottom in two is your best bet so it can easily lay on its sides.

can you eat the skin of roasted acorn squash?

There are two types of squash, winter, and summer. Winter squash varieties include butternut, pumpkin, acorn and so many more! Summer varieties include zucchini, crookneck, pattypan, and so on.

Winter squash typically has tougher skin and is then “cured” after harvest to let the skin harden. It’s what makes them the perfect storage squash and it’s why you can eat them months after being picked.

Squash filled with maple syrup, butter, and brown sugar, ready to bake.

If you wash the skin well and cook it up you can eat the skin of winter squash. A lot of people do not but you can! It depends a lot on how hard it is and it seems like the longer it’s been off the vine the tougher the skin is.

Summer squash is a soft skin squash and it’s ready to eat as soon as it’s picked. They do not store well but they sure are good while you’ve got them!

Ready to serve acorn squash roasted with butter, maple syrup, and brown sugar.

how to serve Roasted acorn squash?

In our house, I make one squash for 2 people. Especially when roasted with brown sugar and butter you don’t need to cut it to serve it and lose all the butter.

You can split each half between two people if you have kids or light eaters. We are not light eaters in this house so when I make acorn squash for us it’s one squash per two people.

A serving of roasted acorn squash on a plate with a fork and a napkin.

What to serve with this Roasted Acorn Squash?

It’s just the perfect side dish for so many recipes! Try serving it with:

Maple Brown Sugar Roasted Acorn Squash

5 from 8 votes

This recipe for roasted squash makes just 2 servings but you can easily double it.

Course: Side Dish Recipes

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 50

Total Time: 1

Servings: servings

Calories: 232kcal

Author: Laura

Print Recipe

Equipment

Corningware French White III Oval Casserole with Glass Cover, 1.5-Quart

Ingredients

1 medium acorn squash
2 TBSP butter
1 TBSP Maple syrup
2 TBSP brown sugar
pinch of salt
*optional* pinch of red pepper flakes spicy but tasty

Instructions

preheat oven to 350°
wash and dry squash
cut from top to bottom lengthwise, scoop the seeds and the flesh attached to them
rinse the cavity if needed and pat dry
use a knife and lightly score the squash but don't cut through the skin
pour the maple syrup over each half of the squash using a pastry brush to get in the cuts you made
add a TBSP of butter to each half of the squash and top with the brown sugar, sprinkle lightly with a little salt, if you're using red pepper flakes sprinkle them on now too
place in a baking dish and add an inch of water to the dish
bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes until soft, basting every 15 minutes or so with the brown sugar and butter in the squash
serve hot