Acorn squash has a mild flavor that makes it ideal for a variety of food. Because its hard rind helps keep the shape of the squash together when baked, acorn squash is ideal for stuffing and baking with a variety of ingredients.
Still, if you’re like some of us, you dread cutting open this squash without cutting open your hand too. Check out this video from Chris Tavano on how to cut acorn squash and keep all your digits at the same time!
Video Transcript:
Hi, I’m Chris Tavano for Tundra Restaurant Supply. In today’s episode I’m going to show you how to properly cut your seasonal squash.
Here, we have a favorite acorn squash. Pretty common, but also very tough as this is a very hard gourd. Perhaps the easiest way to cut this will be lengthwise with the grain as opposed to going horizontal against it like this. You’re just getting a lot of ridge lines that your knife could get stuck in and create a lot of potential hazards for your fingertips.
So what I like to do from here is cut off this little nub. A serrated knife with these harder gourds might be a little bit easier, especially to get started. From there, I’m going to put the knife in the middle of one of these ridges. And be sure you never have your fingertips underneath this blade; they’re always wide, but you want to get the leverage that you need. So go ahead and saw it in there. Once you have it sawed in, then you can initiate with the tip of the knife, and kind of like an avocado, just go all the way around. Again, you’re keeping your hand on the back side of the blade so that way when it pokes out the other end you’re not going to stab your hand. Let’s get through the last little stem.
Pretty easy, and from here you’re just going to clean it out like you did for the butternut squash. The cool thing is you can just roast these as-is with a little bit of salt, pepper and butter. Or go ahead and stuff with a grain like barley or quinoa or rice…sausage is a great combination, sage are some great flavors. Go ahead and roast at 400 for 40 minutes and you have yourself a beautiful acorn squash.