How to cook Hubbard squash
If you’ve recently stumbled upon this blue beauty at a farmer’s market, you may find yourself wondering how to cook Hubbard squash. Well, you’ve come to the right place. There are no shortage of ways to roast, bake or stuff this seasonal squash – and the best part is that they are all delicious. Fall is the perfect time to discover all of your favorite Hubbard squash recipes.
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My favorite way to eat a Hubbard squash is to stuff it and bake it in the oven. This recipe for stuffed Hubbard squash is the first one that appeared on the blog and remains the most popular.
This particular squash can range from 5 pounds up to a whopping 50 pounds, so how you cook it can vary depending on the size.
Hubbard squash is available from early fall through early to mid-winter, so start looking for them soon and discover all the different ways you can enjoy it.
How to cut Hubbard squash
Unless you have an enormous squash on your hands, the easiest way to cut it is to slice it in half with a sharp chef’s knife. It’ll take some work to get through the tough outer skin, so take your time.
If it is manageable, cut a piece from the bottom of the squash to give yourself a flat surface. Then, stand the squash up and slice it down the middle with your knife.
Once you have the squash split in half, use a large metal spoon to scrape the seeds and membrane out of the center. Now you are ready to cook Hubbard squash.
If I’m going to stuff a squash for dinner, I look for the smallest one I can find, which are still a decent size and not terribly difficult to cut.
I have sliced through a 20 pounder with just my chef’s knife, but it does take a bit of effort. Another option for breaking it open is to whack it on the floor. I’ve never had to do this to break one open, but if you find yourself with a beast of a squash, this might be the way to go.
How to prepare a Hubbard squash
How you cook your Hubbard squash will depend on how you plan to eat it. For stuffing the squash, prepare it as suggested above.
Once you scoop out the seeds (don’t throw them away, you make roasted Hubbard squash seeds), roast it cut side down until it softens, then stuff the center and finish baking.
For roasted Hubbard squash, slice the halves into 1″ thick slices and roast in a hot oven. You could also roast each half without slicing and scoop the cooked flesh from the squash to use as a purée in Hubbard squash lasagna rolls.
You can even use the purée in place of canned pumpkin in recipes like pumpkin muffins or pumpkin empanadas.
How to cook Hubbard squash
The easiest way to cook this winter squash is to cut it in half, clean out the seeds and roast it in the oven, cut side down.
Drizzle the cut side with a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper, then roast, cut side down at 350°F / 177°C for about 45 minutes, or until a knife easily pierces the flesh with no resistance.
You could also bake Hubbard squash whole, if you have a rather large squash that is difficult to break open.
Blue Hubbard squash recipes can be swapped out with any firm seasonal squash. If you have a recipe that calls for butternut, buttercup, acorn or kabocha squash, you can use any color (blue, orange or green) Hubbard squash instead.
Stuffed Hubbard squash recipes
These are my personal favorites. I am a big fan of stuffed squash. It’s the perfect dinner on a cool fall evening. It is also a great option for holiday dinners.
If you have a favorite stuffed squash recipe and you’d like to try it with a blue Hubbard, it should be a simple swap. The only large squash that I can think of that wouldn’t be an easy switch would be a spaghetti squash. The texture is completely different and the results might be disappointing.
There are so many ways to cook a Hubbard squash, I hope you try a few of them. And, if you’re looking for even more – stay tuned, because I’m just getting started.
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Maybe I missed it… I’ll go back to look, but I didn’t see oven temperature for roasting the squash (specifically in halves). I chose this site from search options with precisely that question to answer. Please do make that sort of detail more prominent in the future.
The rabbits who frequent my garden appear to get through the tough skin with success 🙁
Thank You
Jordan, how you cook the squash will depend on the recipe (for example – are you making a stuffed squash or do you plan to slice it and roast the pieces?) To roast the halves – 350°F for about 45 minutes should do it.
When cooking hubbard squash I put pieces in a plastic bag and cook in microwave for about 10 minutes. That always works fine for me.
Thanks for the tip.
My great grandparents ran a country store and lived upstairs. When my great grandmother had to deal with hubbard squash, she didn’t bother to cut it. She took it upstairs to their apartment and threw it out the window onto the sidewalk. She then picked up the pieces and continued.
LOL! I’ve heard of people doing this, Skip! I hope you can find one that just slides into the oven instead of having to toss a squash out of a window 🙂