Sheet pan butternut squash is a quick vegetarian main – made with squash, red onions, pine nuts, tahini yogurt sauce, za’atar, and cilantro!
Squashes Galore!
Every year around the end of September, box after box of squash arrives at our local grocery store, and I know fall has finally arrived! The classic Butternut squash and Acorn squash, sugar pumpkins, and Carnival squash, plus newer variations like Honeynut and Koginut. I’m always looking for new recipes to cook more squash because I have a squash problem it tastes so nice.
One of our family’s go-to recipes in the fall has become this sheet pan butternut squash, which is almost straight out of the cookbook Jerusalem, one of my all-time favorite cookbooks. I’ve made some minor modifications to the recipe here to reflect how our family usually eats it. I’ve made this recipe with butternut squash (as the original recipe calls for), but also with Honeynut squash with great success!
Quick, Prep-Friendly Dinner
The best thing about this sheet pan butternut squash is that the majority of the work time is in cutting up the squash and onion. These things can be done (and often are, in our home) in advance. Once cut up, the squash and onion just need some olive oil, salt, and oven time – and in about 30 minutes, dinner is ready. During this time (or beforehand) you can mix up the yogurt tahini sauce, toast some pine nuts, chop some parsley, and figure out if your daughter is actually doing her homework like she says she is.
Vegetarian Main, or a Side
We sometimes make this as our main dish, with pita bread / naan on the side. You can double the tahini yogurt sauce and have a dip ready to go! Or, on days I’m just not feeling dinner, I’ll just make a side of toast. That’s been a lot of days lately as we adjust to back to school season in the midst of a fairly major home renovation we’re trying to live through. Or sometimes I’ll do ravioli – easy and often pretty satisfying for the kids.
I’ll also sometimes make a second vegetable as well for the kids because we have trouble with eating squash sometimes. I think it’s because I don’t give them butternut squash year-round. Instead, it ops up on our table a couple months a year. By the time I get them to eat it again, we’re on to spring and I’m no longer feeling the butternuts.
Regardless of whether or not all or any of the kids are eating it, I find serving two vegetables side by side at dinner time leads to a higher acceptance rate of at least one vegetable, and sometimes both. Also, less parent stress because then I know they’ll probably eat some vegetable. There is a study supporting the idea that serving two vegetables side by side results in a better acceptance rate of both than if you serve one different vegetable at each of two meals.
Protein
This meal does have some protein, but it’s mostly in the greek yogurt tahini sauce. On nights when I think the kids need more protein, I’ll also add on some homemade chicken sausages. If I’m not in a cooking mood, I’ll fry a couple of eggs. Or roast some store-bought refrigerated chicken and apple sausages in the oven at the same time I do the squash. If I’m even more not in a cooking mood, I may just reheat some rotisserie chicken.
The main showstopper should be the squash, so try to keep the other “main” foods super simple if I’m doing them on the same weeknight.
Now, on to the recipe.
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Sheet Pan Butternut Squash Dinner
Sheet pan butternut squash is a quick vegetarian main – made with squash, red onions, pine nuts, tahini yogurt sauce, za’atar, and cilantro!
- Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
1 butternut squash (or 2 honeynut squashes)
2 red onions
olive oil
3 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp tahini
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup yogurt
1 clove crushed garlic
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp za’atar
3 tbsp parsley (cilantro also works in a pinch)
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Prepare squash and onion.
Wash the squash well because you’re not going to be peeling it. Cut the squash into rounds that are 3/4 of an inch thick. Then slice them into strips that are about 1 inch thick – the strips can be as long as you like (if this is confusing, sorry – you can look at what the piece look like once cooked in step 4 below for a visual).
Halve the onions vertically (from root to top), then cut each half into 6 wedges. (If you’re keeping track, you’ve now cut each onion into 12 wedges).
3. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper.
Dump the cut-up squash and onion onto the parchment paper. Toss with 2 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt. This is not a good time to arrange the squash and onion and just spray olive oil over the tops – you need to get the olive oil all over or the squash will stick to the parchment paper.
4. Roast at 475 for 30 minutes.
I use convection to get the squash & onions extra crisp. Check on it after 20 minutes to make sure nothing is burning and you don’t need to rotate the tray.
5. Prep the pine nuts.
Place 2 tbsp of olive oil into a small frying pan. Heat over low heat and then add the 3 tbsp of pine nuts and about 1/4 tsp of salt. The pine nuts should very gently sizzle. Move the pine nuts around in the pan every few minutes, keeping a close eye so you don’t burn them. After about 5-6 minutes, turn off the heat and allow to cool.
6. Prepare the yogurt tahini sauce.
Mix together the 3 tbsp tahini, 3 tbsp lemon juice, and 1 crushed garlic clove in a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt and 1/4 cup of plain yogurt. Mix together until smooth. Set aside.
7. Allow the squash to cool for 5-10 minutes.
This gives the squash the opportunity to cool a bit and crisp up. I’ve found that if you put it straight into a serving bowl, the hot squash steams the onions and other squash and the dish can get a little soggy.
8. Wash and chop 3 tbsp of parsley
9. Make it all look pretty.
Dump the roasted squash and onions in a big bowl. Dump the pine nuts and olive oil over the squash and onions. Place spoonfuls of yogurt tahini sauce randomly (“artfully”) over the top. Sprinkle the 2 tbsp of za’atar over everything. Top with the chopped parsley.
10. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 30 min
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
