Eat Seasonally in November: Butternut Squash

We can't think of a better way to kick off the holiday season than with butternut squash recipes. This seasonal vegetable always makes us think of Thanksgiving, but it's versatile enough to cook with all month long. Even better, because of its creamy texture and mild taste, butternut squash works well in many recipes from breakfast to dessert.

Butternut Squash Recipes for Breakfast

Because we couldn't choose between pancakes and waffles, we decided to feature two delicious squash recipes for breakfast. One is sweet, and the other is savory. Choose the one that fits your craving of the day!

Spiced Almond Pancakes With Candied Butternut Squash and Maple Butter

This recipe from Half Baked Harvest uses cubed candied squash as a topping instead of mashed or blended squash in the pancakes. We bet once you try making candied squash, you'll look for reasons to add it to recipes. Delicious, and simple too! The same is true for maple butter; it may become your go-to breakfast butter.

Maple, Bacon and Butternut Squash Waffles

These waffles from The Hungry Belgian aren't the sort you can whip up on a weekday morning, but they will be worth waiting for the weekend. Make the butternut mash and prepare the bacon ahead of time, and you can even mix the dry ingredients in advance too. Finally, don't forget the crème fraîche for the topping. Maple syrup won't do here.

Butternut Squash Recipes: Lunch and Dinner

Because butternut squash is so versatile, we had a difficult time choosing among the masses of delicious-sounding recipes out there. Below, find our top two contenders.

Thai Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Pair this soup from Cookie and Kate with one of the autumn salad recipes we featured. We love how Kate offers suggestions for scaling the spiciness according to taste. Her recipe is vegan when prepared as written, or you can add some crème fraîche instead of coconut milk if you prefer. Definitely top with fresh cilantro leaves either way.

Kate recommends using a Le Creuset cast iron Dutch oven to cook the soup, and we agree. We're also partial to Vitamix blenders for turning out smooth, creamy soups.

Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta

Butternut squash makes a nutritious and kid-friendly pasta sauce, like in this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod. We love sage with squash, and we think the pinch of nutmeg is the perfect addition to this sauce. While Maria offers the option of using water when puréeing the squash, we'd opt for vegetable broth to add even more flavor.

You'll need your Vitamix blender again for this recipe, to ensure your squash purée is smooth and creamy.

Butternut Squash Recipes: Dessert

Squash for dessert? Oh, yes. You may have seen the hoax claiming that pumpkin purée is really made from squash. It's not, but that doesn't mean butternut squash can't be part of a delicious dessert.

Check out these Caramel Butternut Squash and Apple Squares from Dan's Good Side. From the lemon shortbread crust to the homemade caramel sauce on top, these bars are a top-notch dessert.

Two important notes: Dan calls for icing sugar in the shortbread crust ingredients. For those of us in the US, icing sugar is the same as powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar. Also, he doesn't specify the size of the baking dish, but we'd estimate a 9x13-inch dish would work.