Air Fryer Acorn Squash
This air fryer acorn squash is buttery, sweet, and melt-in-the-mouth delicious. It’s the perfect side dish for any meal and is sure to be a hit with the family. This is a perfect and easy yet impressive side dish to serve on your holiday table.
Why you will love this air fryer acorn squash
- It’s delicious, healthy, and low in calories! The combination of butter and maple syrup makes it so flavorful. Your kitchen will be filled with the aroma of caramelized squash and it tastes even better than it smells.
- You can make it savory or sweet using any seasoning of choice
- It’s simple and easy to make, all you need is 5 ingredients and it comes together quickly.
- Requires minimal ingredients and no special equipment, apart from cutting the squash which may seem challenging it is very easy to do.
- Unlike the conventional oven, cooking your squash in the air fryer is a much faster and easier way to get your holiday side dish on the table.
- It can be served alongside a vegetarian or vegan dinner or a side dish with roasted chicken or fish.
- It’s also a great way to sneak in some vegetables. Kids will love it and won’t even notice they are eating something healthy.
Tools needed
Sharp and heavy knife: this is basically the hard job in this recipe. you will need to cut the squash in halves before cooking. while it may look as a daunting task, it is easy to achieve with a steady hand and
Spoon
Ingredients
To make air fryer acorn squash, you will the following ingredients
Acorn squash: depending on the size and shape of your air fryer, you should be able to fit either four small acorn squash or 2 large ones in the air fryer basket. For reference, my acorn squash is about 2 pounds (900g) and it fits perfectly in my Cosori 5.5L (1700W) air fryer.
Maple syrup: for a little bit of sweetness and flavor, you can substitute with honey.
Butter: I use unsalted butter but you can use salted butter, just make sure to salt the squash accordingly so it doesn’t become too salty.
Pecans: this is optional but highly recommended as it compliments the sweetness from the squash so well.
Salt and pepper to taste
How to cut acorn squash
To cut acorn squash, start by washing it well and dry with a paper towel.
Place the squash on its side on the chopping board, ensuring it is stable and not moving.
Find the center of the squash, for a more straightforward method, remove the stalk if you can, that way you can place the squash on the board stalk side down.
Use a sharp knife to cut the squash in half through the center lengthwise. Run your knife through the center of the squash from top to bottom and use gentle pressure as you rock the blade back and forth until it’s all the way through.
Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and membrane from the center of each half. Discard the seeds and membrane or you can save them to roast on a baking sheet later.
PS: you can further cut the squash into slices or quarters.
How to make air fryer acorn squash
To make this air fryer acorn squash, start by preheating your air fryer to 375F/180C.
Cut the squash into 2 halves and scoop out the seeds membrane.
Place the squash in the air fryer basket skin side down then season the fleshy part with salt and black pepper.
Spoon the butter equally into each half of the squash, use a pastry brush and brush the inside of the squash with a thin layer of butter. Pour the maple syrup into the squash and brush it all over the fleshy part.
Cook in the air fryer for 20-25 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork or tested with a knife. After 15 minutes, check on the squash and baste it with the cooking sauce, you can do this once more before the end of the cooking time.
When done, sprinkle with chopped pecans and serve warm. Enjoy!
How to serve
This air fried squash makes a delicious side dish, you can either eat it directly from the shell or scoop it out and serve it along with other dishes. This dish goes well with a variety of other dishes such as roasted chicken, steak, pork steak, cauliflower steak, and many more.
More air fryer recipes you should try next
How to cook asparagus in air fryer
Air Fryer Acorn Squash
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large acorn squash about 2 pounds (900g)
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup substitute with honey
- 2 Tablespoons butter melted salted or unsalted butter
- Pecans to serve
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- To make this air fryer acorn squash, start by preheating your air fryer to 375F/180C.
- Cut the squash into 2 halves and scoop out the seeds membrane.
- Place the squash in the air fryer basket skin side down then season the fleshy part with salt and black pepper.
- Spoon the butter equally into each half of the squash, use a pastry brush and brush the inside of the squash with a thin layer of butter. Pour the maple syrup into the squash and brush it all over the fleshy part as well.
- Cook in the air fryer for 20-25 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork or tested with a knife. After 15 minutes, check on the squash and baste it with the cooking sauce, you can do this once more before the end of the cooking time.
- When done, sprinkle with chopped pecans and serve warm. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutritional data: Please note that the nutrition label provided is an estimate based on an online nutrition calculator. It will vary based on the specific ingredients and brands you use. Under no circumstances will thedinnerbite.com be responsible for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on nutritional information.
There you have it, a simple and delicious recipe of acorn squash cooked in an air fryer that you can make at home in 30 minutes. As always, if you made this recipe, I would love to hear from you! Kindly rate the recipe 5 star and leave me feedback in the comment section below. Tag me @thedinnerbite on Instagram and save it away to your Pinterest. Please subscribe to the blog if you haven’t for free new recipes in your inbox
I have made this recipe and it was good. After I washed and dried squash I placed it in the microwave, for 1 minute for a medium to large squash, to soften the outside to cut easier.
Thank you Jackie for your feedback and the great tip. I am glad you enjoyed it.