How to peel and cut up winter squash

By James P. DeWan | Special to the Tribune

February 25, 2009

It's hard, sometimes, to take winter squash seriously. Some varieties, like the turban, appear to be more troll than vegetable. Today let's rehabilitate some of that poor squash's dignity. We'll peel it, cut it up, and turn it into something wonderful.

Why you need to learn thisDon't you get tired of just cutting them in half and baking them with butter and brown sugar? Peeling them gives you many more opportunities. They can be cut into large dice and roasted. They can be cut into small dice, sauteed with garlic and tossed with pasta. They can even be sliced thin, brushed with oil and grilled.

The steps you take

Many winter squash have thick skins that make them hard to peel.

To peel them, you'll need more than a standard vegetable peeler. You'll need a good, sharp chef's knife. For smaller or evenly shaped squash such as buttercup or sweet dumpling, you can peel them whole. For oddly shaped squash, such as butternut, first cut them in half around the "waist" (rather than from top to bottom).

Some squash, like the butternut, have a relatively thin skin and are fairly easy to peel. Thicker-skinned examples, however, will benefit from having the skin softened a bit. You can do this by simmering in water or microwaving on high for several minutes. (If you're microwaving, be sure to poke several small holes in the skin to allow steam to escape; you don't want an exploding squash on your hands.)

(One last thing: Some squash, like the heavily ridged acorn or the turban, have such unhandy shapes that you're better off using other squash for peeling. If you insist, though, soften the skins first, as mentioned above, and peel the skin away as well as you can with a knife, then scrape the remaining skin away with a spoon.)

For our purposes, we'll be using a butternut squash.

1. Cut the squash in half around its waist, just where its bulbous bottom begins to taper off. Cut a thin slice from the bottom of the wide half, just enough to see the meat inside. The squash will now stand solidly on your cutting board.

2. Place your guide fingers on top of the squash half and place your knife at an angle at the place where the top of the skin meets the flattened surface of the flesh.

3. Using a back-and-forth sawing motion, slice all the way down the side of the squash, following its natural curves. You want to see the bright orange of the flesh, but try to avoid cutting too deeply.

4. Rotate the squash toward you about 1 inch. Place your knife back on top of the squash to have another go at it, using the edge of the skin as your guide, slicing down.

5. Keep rotating the squash toward you until you've gone all the way around. Cut away any bits of skin you've missed.

6. Split the squash half down the middle from top to bottom.

7. With a metal tablespoon, scrape out the seeds from the cavity.

8. Cut into slices, sticks or cubes..