Our 20 Best Acorn Squash Recipes

By Food & Wine
Updated September 19, 2019
Eva Kolenko
Fall is all about orange foods—pumpkin, butternut squash, carrots—and acorn squash happens to be one of our favorites. Creamy and slightly sweet, it’s incredibly versatile, equally delicious in a black-eyed pea coconut curry as it is simply roasted with sage and brown butter. You can even fill it with burrata for an indulgent vegetarian dish, so it stands on its own as a main course. Tempted? We’ve included all of those recipes and more in this roundup—good luck picking which one to make first.
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Healthy Chicken and Roasted Acorn Squash

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Perfect as a holiday side or, paired with a nice green salad, as a quick and healthy weeknight meal, this cold-weather twist on traditional chicken salad is sure to satisfy.

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Baked Acorn Squash with Chestnuts, Apples and Leeks

Credit: Alexandra Rowley
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Halved acorn squash make perfect single-serving bowls. These make a great vegetarian main course for any winter holiday, but they're also a festive accompaniment to turkey, ham or roast goose.

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Wheat Berry and Squash Salad


Credit: Abby Hocking
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Apron guru Ellen Bennett's grain salad is a meal unto itself, combining winter squash, parsnips and wheat berries with kale, pomegranate seeds and feta cheese. It's a festive crowd-pleaser.

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Roast Pork with Acorn Squash Romesco Puree

Credit: Olivia Rae James
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Romesco, a traditional Catalonian sauce with almonds and red bell pepper, is the inspiration for Mike Lata's squash puree, which does double duty as a side dish and a flavorful sauce for the pork.

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Winter Acorn Squash, Turkey and Mushroom Soup

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This winter acorn squash stew is perfect for cooking with all your leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

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Mustard-Stewed Acorn Squash with Chicken

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Perfectly warm and comforting, this stewed acorn squash is made with chicken, mustard and other spices.

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Acorn Squash Saltimbocca

Credit: Caitlin Bensel
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Ann Taylor Pittman gives acorn squash the saltimbocca treatment here, lining wedges of the squash with fresh sage leaves, wrapping them in prosciutto, and roasting to crisp up the pork and caramelize the edges of the squash. You end up with a gorgeous autumnal palette—deep orange flesh, hunter green skin, and soft green sage—and flavors that play off each other beautifully.

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Stewed Acorn Squash with Mushrooms & Chinese Sausage

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Savory, earthy and delicious, this tender acorn squash becomes a meal when stewed with hearty mushrooms and Chinese sausage.

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Sweet Soy-Stewed Acorn Squash with Cherry Tomatoes

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Simmered acorn squash in a sweet-soy broth brings out the naturally sweet flavor of the squash and makes it fork tender.

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Miso-Stewed Acorn Squash with Bell Peppers

Credit: Todd Porter & Diane Cu
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Acorn squash becomes perfectly tender and delicious when stewed in a rich miso broth.

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Roasted Acorn Squash with Sage Brown Butter

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Warm, fragrant and earthy sage, combined with brown butter, makes this simple roasted acorn squash fabulous and elegant.

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Maple Bacon-Roasted Acorn Squash

Credit: Todd Porter & Diane Cu
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Make this acorn squash a meal. With sweet maple syrup and flavored with crisp bacon, it's hard to not eat the whole thing by yourself.

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Cinnamon-Spiced Roasted Acorn Squash

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Spiced with fragrant cinnamon and sweetened with brown sugar, this simple acorn squash is the perfect side dish.

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Classic Brown Sugar-Roasted Acorn Squash

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Perfectly sweet and easy to make, this classic acorn squash recipe is great for a holiday meal or any time of year.

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Roasted Acorn Squash with Garlic Butter and Burrata

Credit: Con Poulos
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Chef Dave Beran created this wonderfully indulgent vegetarian dish of roasted sweet squash topped with just-melted burrata. It's fantastic with a lush Chardonnay.

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Acorn Squash and Escarole Salad

Credit: Con Poulos
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This lovely knife-and-fork salad from Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple gets terrific texture from crunchy hazelnuts and pomegranate seeds, and the creamy buttermilk drizzle perfectly ties all the tasty components together.

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Ginger-Roasted Winter Squash

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For winter squash that is crispy on the outside and moist within, Melissa Perello halves each one, roasts it until soft, then cuts it into wedges and roasts it some more.

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Squash and Black-Eyed Pea Coconut Curry


Credit: Eric Wolfinger
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Garam masala–roasted acorn squash joins a very lightly simmered coconut curry with fresh tomatoes and black-eyed peas.

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Roasted Chicken and Acorn Squash with Sumac Brown Butter

Credit: Victor Protasio
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Pre-salting the chicken makes for savory flavor throughout and helps crisp up the skin. Browning the butter adds nutty depth to the sauce; a flourish of sumac and Aleppo—though not fresh ingredients—adds a fresh, bright flavor to the finished dish.

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Acorn Squash with Coconut Custard

Credit: Eva Kolenko
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Every year at Thanksgiving, Top Chef winner Kristen Kish’s mother would serve roasted acorn squash. When Kish took over cooking the holiday meal, she upgraded the classic side with a decadent coconut custard that offsets the earthy sweetness of the dish. The custard will set as it cools and slices beautifully at room temperature.

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