Roasted Butternut Boats

Roasted butternut boats with honey mustard brussels sprouts and spring greens, topped with extra crispy shallots. Delicious!

Butternut squash is one of my favourite ingredients. It is somewhat similar to sweet potato but usually it is a lot bigger and provides more versatility. This dish is a great way to enjoy a large amount of butternut squash and provide a boat to fill with lots of delicious vegetables.

I’m most definitely not the first person to create roasted butternut boats. The first time I had butternut in this way was with at a Thai restaurant chain called “The Giggling Squid”. The boat was filled with a mouth-wateringly tasty coconut curry. There are quite a few recipes if you search for “Roasted Butternut Boats” but I couldn’t find one that I really wanted to try. So I decided to “Russell Something Up” based on what I had to hand.

How to make Roasted Butternut Boats

First of all, it is probably a good idea to use a small butternut squash. That being said, if like my local supermarket, the price is per squash instead of by weight, then you might as well use a large one. That’s what I did. If anything, the more butternut squash, the better. That is what I think anyway.

Take whatever sized squash you end up with, and using a large and sharp knife, slice through the middle lengthways and scoop out the seeds. That’s it, all prep done, and you have two butternut boats ready to be baked. I used the knife to score the flesh of the boat but if I am completely honest, I don’t think you need to do this step. I was just having fun and trying to make it look good.

Once you have the roasted butternut boats, drizzle a small amount of oil on top. Then bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until they are really soft.

Once baked and softened through, remove from the oven and leave to cool for at least 5 minutes. If you don’t let these cool and try to scoop out the flesh, it’s a lot easier for them to break apart. Plus it’s a lot easier to handle if its not oven temperature!

Take a spoon and scoop out a large chunk of the middle of the boat. Make sure to leave a relatively large border at the edge of at least 1cm. The removed butternut can be served on the side.

The Best Way to Cook Brussels Sprouts

Whilst the butternut squash is baking in the oven, it is a good idea to get started on the other vegetables.

Now, I know that Brussels Sprouts are not everyone’s favourite vegetable. I used to only eat them at Christmas (and only because I felt I had to). It turns out I actually really like Brussels Sprouts. But I like them best when they are roasted. Honestly, roasting the Brussels sprouts was an absolute game changer for me and I now I love including them in new recipes.

Preparing the Brussels Sprouts

I recommend peeling off the outside layer of the Brussels sprouts, cutting off the bottoms and slicing into very thin layers. Add these to a large dish and drizzle with oil and a generous sprinkling of salt. Place the Brussels sprouts as a single layer for best results.

Baking the Brussels Sprouts

You will want to roast these for 20-25 minutes. You might see that some of the sprouts are starting to brown at the edges, this is absolutely fine. Once these have been roasted, add a large handful of sliced spring greens. The next step is to create a honey mustard glaze. This can be done by mixing together honey and mustard of course, along with some boiling water and citrus juice. For the citrus I used grapefruit, but lemon or lime would work as well.

The honey mustard glaze is meant to be quite watery. We want it to be very runny so we can easily drizzle it over all of the vegetables. This is to help them keep a bit of moisture and to add a hint of flavour. Once drizzled, we can place back in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Again, if the edges start to crisp and brown, this is fine. You can see the edge of mine started to darken.

Filling the Roasted Butternut Boats

Once the butternut boats are baked and scooped, and the vegetables are roasted and flavoured, we can add the two together. Fill the boats with the Brussels sprouts vegetable mix and top with goats cheese. Leftover vegetables (including the scooped out butternut) can be left in the dish for more baking and served on the side at the end.

Substitutions to the Roasted Butternut Boats

This is a vegetarian dish, however if you wanted to make it Vegan then you would need to use a vegan hard cheese instead of goats cheese. Additionally, this includes honey for the honey mustard glaze, so if you want to swap this out, I recommend using maple syrup instead.

I have also included frying the shallots in butter. This can also be easily replaced with another oil or perhaps a vegan spread. The main thing for cooking the shallots, is to fry them for long enough to become extra crispy. If you don’t have shallots, you could most definitely substitute for red or white onions, these just won’t be as sweet.

Benefits of Butternut Squash

If you are not already sold on these roasted butternut boats then just think about how good butternut is for your diet. It has an insane amount of fibre which is great for your gut health and digestion. Butternut is also very low calorie, when compared to white and sweet potatoes. It also contains less sugar and carbohydrates. This makes it an excellent addition for anyone on a diet or trying to restrict refined carbohydrates. This dish is great at filling you up on low calorie ingredients (ignoring the butter fried shallots of course).

In terms of vitamins, butternut contains vitamin E, B6 and a range of nutrients such as thiamine, folate, manganese, and potassium. These are all very good things. In conclusion, you should most definitely try this recipe and include this in your diet. Check out my other recipes with butternut squash.