Crispy and so delicious, Butternut Squash Fries are a garlicky craveable snack or side dish. This healthy butternut fries recipe is Whole30 compliant, paleo, gluten-free, and vegan.
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Butternut squash fries are such a fun side dish or appetizer because they put a vegetable in a very appealing and snackable form. Kids who may turn their nose up at Crispy Oven-Roasted Butternut Squash might just gobble up a plate of homemade squash fries. Sometimes it is all about marketing, right?
If you’re looking for something spicier, try the components of Buffalo Chicken Fries, but use these squash fries as the base. Heaven.
When you’re cutting the squash into matchsticks you’ll want to make uniform pieces to ensure even cooking time. If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, they have precut butternut squash “zig zags” if you need a quick prep.
If you want to get incredibly detailed and fancy with your butternut squash fries, they actually make crinkle-cut fry knives.
How Do You Make Squash Fries Crispy?
I failed at this recipe FIVE times before I felt like it was worthy of sharing with the masses. I learned all the hard lessons so you don’t have to!
Here are my tricks for making the crispiest butternut squash fries:
- You need a dusting starch for this recipe. I finally settled on arrowroot powder as the winner. Cornstarch would work great too.
- Preheat the oven higher than you’re actually going to use for baking. I learned this trick with making No-Knead Bread and it works so well to mimic a professional-grade oven. To make your butternut squash fries crispy, you’re going preheat the oven to 450F, but bake at 425F.
- You will toss the sliced butternut squash in a bit of avocado or olive oil before adding them to your sheet pan. But, if you’re looking for the best possible crispy homemade fry, you’ll want to take the extra step of spraying the top of squash on the pan with a spritz of oil. I used olive oil in my Misto.
What is a fry without a delicious dipping sauce? Try Chipotle Sauce, Sweet Potato Fries Dipping Sauce, Cilantro Chimichurri, Whole30 BBQ Sauce, or Homemade Green Goddess Dressing.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
- Preheating your oven and baking sheet is a crucial step in this recipe. A nice hot oven helps the cooking process start immediately and produces a crispier fry.
- Don’t crowd your pan! If the butternut squash is too close together, it will steam instead of bake/roast. Use two baking sheets if you want to double the recipe.
More Tasty Roasted Vegetable Recipes Like This
- Air Fryer Fries {Air Fryer Garlic Fries}
- Baked Cauliflower Patties
- Crispy Turnip Fries
- Crispy Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts
- How to Roast Asparagus
- Blistered Shishito Peppers
- Air Fryer Butternut Squash
WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS
One serving has 2 WW Freestyle SmartPoints.
Crispy Butternut Squash Fries
Ingredients
- 16 oz butternut squash {peeled, seeded, and cut into matchsticks}
- 1 tbsp arrowroot powder {or cornstarch}
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp avocado oil {olive oil or coconut oil works too}
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F degrees. Place rimmed baking sheet in the oven while it preheats.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine arrowroot powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder.1 tbsp arrowroot powder, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder
- Add the squash to the arrowroot powder mixture, and toss to combine.16 oz butternut squash
- Drizzle olive oil over butternut and toss to distribute.1 tbsp avocado oil
- Lightly spray the hot baking sheet with olive or avocado oil.
- Add the butternut squash pieces on the preheated baking sheet and make sure to give them all plenty of space. Spray the top of the butternut squash with olive or avocado oil cooking spray.
- Reduce the oven temp to 425 degrees F and bake the fries for 15 minutes. Flip and then bake another 5-10 minutes.
- Sprinkle with parsley and salt to taste.1 tsp dried parsley, kosher salt
Notes
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Holy COW these are so delicious. Perfectly seasoned, perfectly crispy, and so easy to make. These have become a staple in my house.
Yes, ma’am, they’re so fun and tasty! So thrilled you enjoyed them so much. 🙂
These look so good! Have you had any luck making them in an air fryer? What do you think the temp and time would be for these?
I haven’t tried this cut (yet) but have done BNS cubes in the air fryer. That post is here: https://www.sustainablecooks.com/air-fryer-butternut-squash/
Made these with the zig-zags from Trader Joe’s and subbed the arrow root powder (didn’t have any) for cornstarch and OH MY GOD. Ate my entire plate in about 2.5 seconds. So so good!
Ha, I did the same thing, Sonia! Always fun to binge on veggies. 🙂
Do you bake at 425 or 400 degrees? It says both.
Apologies should be 425. I’ll update now!
Thanks for posting! I am curious about the sauce next to them… is that on here somewhere?
It’s a slightly altered version of this recipe: https://www.sustainablecooks.com/sweet-potato-dipping-sauce/
The one in the photo with the butternut fries has a lot more sriracha and some chili powder in it.
Great! Thank you so much for passing the other recipe on. I usually add a lot of siracha too!
A girl after my own heart!
Where does the parsley and salt come in?
Really good!
More of an optional garnish after it bakes. I’ll clarify in the recipe – thank you for pointing that out!
Thank you!
These were a hit! I’ll definitely be making them again!
So glad you liked them, Meredith!!
Wow. this sounds great. We have been getting “in” to butternut squash more lately and we definitely like sweet potato fries so I am going to have to try this. Thanks for taking into consideration the crunch factor and making mistakes for me! Will try your recipe! (And I made BNS a week ago and the kids learned new swear words so the video was helpful, too, so thanks!)
I’m laughing so hard at the kids learning new swear words!