Roasted acorn squash is baked in the oven to delicious perfection. It's an easy and healthy side dish that is paleo and Whole30-friendly. It's also delicious in salads and grain bowls!
I recently discovered the beauty of acorn squash. It's a fun fall and winter squash to make. It's so easy to roast in the oven and it tastes delicious! I also love making acorn squash in the air fryer.
I've seen a ton of recipes online that roast it with maple syrup or other sweets, but I wanted to let its natural sweetness come out in roasting and keep it simple. So I made roasted acorn squash with olive oil, salt and pepper and it came out perfectly!
And it's much easier to cut! I also love how pretty it looks all cut up with its scalloped edges. It looks impressive and fancy. You'd never know how easy it is to cut and make.
The beauty of acorn squash is that you don't have to peel it like you do butternut squash. You can roast it by just slicing in half, or by cutting into slices, as I did here.
I love eating it on its own as a side dish, but you can also have it for a snack, or as part of a salad or grain bowl.
I love serving it alongside air fryer salmon, air fryer Greek chicken thighs or air fryer tuna patties. It's also delicious with honey sriracha chicken.
Ingredients:
- Acorn squash - the key ingredient! In my grocery store, these are right next to the butternut squashes. They are roundish and a dark green.
- Olive oil - I use regular olive oil when I roast veggies like this (save your extra virgin olive oil for things like salad dressings).
- Salt and pepper - Simple seasonings like salt and pepper allow the acorn squash to shine.
How to cut acorn squash
You can cut acorn squash in a variety of ways, but for this recipe, I like to slice it in half through the stem.
Then I scoop out the seeds and cut off the stem. After that, I just cut into slices. The beauty of acorn squash is that is doesn't require peeling, and is so easy to cut.
Whole30 Roasted Acorn Squash ideas
If you're doing a Whole30 and cooking up some acorn squash, I love to eat it with a salad, as a side dish to a delicious protein, or even a side dish to a soup.
You can also easily make a faux grain bowl using cauliflower rice, this roasted acorn squash, another veggie, and some chicken.
Try these other fall recipes too!
More Whole30 recipes
- Salmon cooked in parchment paper
- Whole30 chicken curry
- Whole30 Instant Pot beef stew
- Whole30 Bolognese over spaghetti squash
How to make oven roasted acorn squash
To make the oven-roasted acorn squash, you'll preheat your oven and then while it's preheating you'll slice up your acorn squash!
I like to wash the outside. Then cut the acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds. You can use a spoon, but my secret weapon is an ice cream scoop.
After that, you just slice into one inch thick slices (discarding the stem piece).
To prep your baking sheet, you can roast right on the sheet, use parchment paper, or a silpat mat (I recently got one of these and LOVE it).
You'll place the acorn squash pieces on the baking sheet, then rub olive oil onto each piece, sprinkle salt and pepper over the top, then flip them over and do it again.
And then it's as simple as popping them in the oven and cooking, flipping once.
Roasted Acorn Squash
Ingredients
- 1 acorn squash
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Place the olive oil in a small bowl.
- Wash and dry the outside of the acorn squash.
- Cut the acorn squash down the middle, cutting through the stem. Then, scoop out the seeds of the acorn squash with a spoon or an ice cream scoop. Discard the seeds.
- Slice the acorn squash into one inch slices. Place the slices on a baking sheet (can be lined with parchment paper or a silpat mat).
- With a pastry brush or your fingers, rub olive oil onto each slice. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the slices. Flip each piece of acorn squash and repeat on the other side.
- Place in the oven and cook for 25 minutes. Then flip each piece of acorn squash and cook for another 20 minutes. If you'd like your acorn squash a little more brown, you can broil for a couple of minutes at the end (watch closely to make sure it doesn't burn!)
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- When slicing, you'll discard the top and bottom slices that have the stem pieces.
- I like to remove the seeds with an ice cream scoop. I find it works incredibly well.
- All ovens heat differently. Check your acorn squash to make sure it's done to your likeness before removing from the oven. You can always broil it for a couple of minutes at the end. (Note: I did not in these photos).
Nutrition values are based on an online calculator and are estimates. Please verify using your own data.
L Ramian
I like to sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on them as they are cooking as well.
Richard
I find acorn squash skin a little too thick for this type of recipe, delicata squash is a better choice but acorn is good nonetheless I would just not eat the skin.
You can also drizzle flavorful oils, maple or other syrup and butter. Very versatile. More flavor forward than delicata and butternut squash but inexpensive and widely available.
Don’t forget to save the seeds and roast like you do pumpkin seeds, just less time as they are more Riki are. Very good and healthy and seed pods much less fribrous that pumpkin seeds.
Richard Nicholson
I like acorn squash with it cut in half take the seeds out p ut it in the oven and put salt and pepper and put ground pork sausage and ground beef with onion and the seasoning that you like cook in the oven and till it is done p.s put half of the meat and seasoning in each side of acorn squash thank you richard nicholson