The Fundamentals of Roasted Calabaza Squash
Roasted calabaza squash is my new favorite thing in the world. It's sweet and more robust than a pie pumpkin or butternut squash. Just... exponentially larger! They tend to weigh around 10 pound and produce about 8 cups of purée. Luckily, it absolutely delicious and does freeze well. Which is fantastic because, honestly? I may never go back to regular old squash again. Calabaza has by far the superior taste!
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking Sheet
- Aluminum Foil
- Oven
- Food Processor
Ingredients
- 1 calabaza (or similarly large squash or pumpkin)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cut squash in half.
- Using a spoon, scoop out the innards to remove all of the seeds and stringy pieces. Reserve the seeds if you want to roast them for a fun snack.The "guts" are still edible, but can be texturally unpleasant. I will usually keep them to puree into soup or pet food. However, most people will discard them! Just make sure not to toss any seeds!
- Once you've cut in half and removed the innards from the squash, wrap in aluminum foil. You can also place this on a baking sheet if you want to keep any of the juice from seeping through the foil.I do this by getting a piece of foil long enough to wrap around the entire squash. Place squash face down in the center of the foil. Then, wrap the edges of the foil around to cover the squash completely.I didn't do this, but would highly recommend cutting the squash into fourths, instead of just halves! This would decrease the rather long cooking time for something this size.
- Bake for 2 - 3 hours depending on size. Make sure to flip halfway through so that the squash sides are face up.This is the trickiest part about roasting squash: the size of the squash can drastically increase the cook time. You’ll know that they’re done when the flesh is soft and you can poke it with a fork without any resistance. It will vaguely resemble the consistency of potatoes before you mash them. The best thing to do is to cook them for an hour and then check them every 20 minutes after that until they’re cooked throughout.
- Let cool to the touch.You can also put the squash in the refrigerator or freezer to speed up this process. Just place it in a heat-safe bowl and place an oven mitt in between the bowl and any glass shelves. As the rapid change in temperature can crack and break.
- Remove skin and add squash to the food processor. It should peel off easily. If you like, you can get every bit of pumpkin out of it by scooping the remaining pumpkin out with a spoon.
- Purée until smooth, about 2 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the sides occasionally.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
- This also took absolutely forever to cook! In hindsight, that was pretty obvious. It is rather enormous! I would absolutely encourage you to cut it into quarters, rather than trying to roast in halves. The edges are definitely softer than the center. But it did work out. It just took a couple of hours…
- This is also A LOT of purée to make all at once. Particularly because squash doesn't tend to keep that well over time. I used about half of it right away for purée and then froze the rest. Purée tends to crystalize and isn't always the best texture after freezing, though! So, I opted instead to freeze the squash whole and then thaw it out and purée later on. This worked remarkably well and I recommend it if you end up with too much squash after roasting!
- For more tips and tricks to roasting squash, I have an entire article on The Fundamentals of How to Roast Pumpkins, Squash, & Other Gourds. This article more specifically pertains to the differences in varieties and my go-to recipe for smaller ones, like butternut squash and pie pumpkins.