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Pan seared butternut squash rounds sauteed in lemon and garlic are the best crispy dinner entree. You almost forget your eating vegetables. Keeping things light, it’s served along side a spinach arugula salad.
Normally, roasting squash in the oven takes a long time. But these squash steaks fry up fast, they’re done in about 12 minutes. You want them to be fork-tender but not mushy. I used a cast iron skillet, which helped with the browning but you would probably get similar results with any pan. I’m calling these butternut squash ‘steaks’ because they use a similar basting technique used to cook steak.
Whatever side you serve with the butternut squash steaks, just make sure it’s not too starchy. The squash is a heavier entree, so if you serve it with something like mashed potatoes, it would weigh everything down too much. My side of choice is a spinach salad.
My favorite part of the spinach salad is the pickled onions. It’s also topped with chopped walnuts, shredded cheese, and a tiny drizzle of olive oil. For the pickled onions, you slice red onions super thin, then let them sit in red wine vinegar with a pinch of sugar. How long you let the onions marinate depends on how vinegary you want the onions to taste. You can let them marinate as quick as 30 minutes or you can even leave them overnight.
The best part of these steaks is there’s no marinating ahead of time! Just slice the squash into rounds and start browning them. Then you can prepare the lemon garlic paste.
The most important thing to remember is find for a butternut squash with a long thin neck. You’ll be using just the neck of the squash, not the bottom round part with seeds.
Butternut Squash Steaks With Spinach Salad

Cook: | Yield: serves 4 people | Total: |
Pan seared butternut squash rounds sauteed in lemon and garlic until crispy served with a spinach salad.
You'll Need...
- For Butternut Squash:
- 1 butternut squash, with a long neck
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- zest from 1 lemon
- salt & pepper, to taste
- For the Salad
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
- 1/4 - 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
- pinch of sugar
- 4 cups spinach
- 1 cup arugula
- 1/3 cup walnuts, toasted
- 4 tablespoons shredded cheese
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
Directions
- Pickled onions: Place onions in a bowl and over with red wine vinegar. Add sugar. Let marinate for 30 minutes to overnight.
- Make the squash steaks: Peel the butternut squash. Cut horizontally in 1/4 inch slices . Stop slicing when you reach the seeds. Reserve the bottom of butternut squash for another use.
- Heat olive oil over medium high in a cast iron skillet. When hot, add butternut squash slices. Cook for 5 minutes, flip when browned. Cook for 5 more minutes.
- While squash finishes cooking, mix butter, oregano, garlic, lemon zest, salt, pepper.
- Pour butter mixture on each squash. Flip and cook squash 1 more minute until butter sauce us bubbling.
- Divide squash among plates and top with remaining/leftover sauce.
- Finish salad: Chop spinach and arugula. Top with walnuts, cheese, olive oil. Remove onions from vinegar and add to salad. Pour remaining red wine vinegar on salad. Add to plates with butternut squash.
Additional Notes
images & text © North Coast Eats
adapted from Eating Well 101
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