I love butternut squash and since it is dead easy to cook, I think that it also loves me. At my house on Thanksgiving, we usually serve butternut squash mashed up just like mashed potatoes, with a bit of butter melted into it. But it is even easier to just cut it in half and bake it in the oven.

Here's a few different ways you can cook the extremely adaptable butternut squash.

Butternut Squash Recipes

The simplest method to cook butternut squash is cut it in half and bake it in the oven. Just be careful when cutting the squash. The skin is very tough. Use a VERY sharp knife.

Baked Butternut Squash

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Wash squash and then cut lengthwise down the middle
• Scoop out the seeds and crud
• Lightly coat the exposed meaty parts of the squash with butter or olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste, with a touch of ground ginger (or cinnamon, or nutmeg, your preference - for a sweeter taste, use cinnamon sugar)
• Place cutside up in a baking pan with about an inch of water in the pan
• Cook until fork tender -- usually about 1 hour. The squash should be lightly browned

After cooking, you can either serve the squash in the shell, or cut into quarters, or scoop out the squash meat. Some folks mash it or blend it, but I like it with a little more texture.

This garlic butternut squash recipe from allrecipes.com looks delicious and is on my "to do" list for the next time I go to the supermarket.

Again, it is a very simple recipe, basically adding garlic, parsley and parmesan cheese to the standard baking method after cutting the squash up into cubes. From the photos, it certainly looks delicious!

For a more exoticly spiced flavor, also try this Roast Butternut Squash with Moroccan Spices recipe. It looks delicious too. There are way too many great squash recipes!