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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. 

a plate of baked butternut squash fries with a dipping sauce

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

butternut squash in a bowl, salt, and other ingredients for making butternut squash chips

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.

two photos showing the baking process for making a butternut squash fries recipe

What is a fry without a delicious dipping sauce? Try Chipotle Sauce, Sweet Potato Fries Dipping SauceCilantro ChimichurriWhole30 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

WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS

One serving has 2 WW Freestyle SmartPoints.

4.34 from 6 ratings

Crispy Butternut Squash Fries

Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 25 minutes
Total: 35 minutes
a plate of baked butternut squash fries with a dipping sauce
These healthy squash fries are tasty and poppable.

Ingredients 

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

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.

Nutrition

Serving: 0.25cupCalories: 92kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 1gFat: 3gSaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 5mgPotassium: 399mgFiber: 2gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 12175IUVitamin C: 23.8mgCalcium: 54mgIron: 0.8mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Tried this recipe?Mention @sustainablecooks or tag #sustainablecooks!

 

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About Sarah

Helping you serve up budget-friendly sustainable recipes with a side of balanced living.
Come for the food. Stay for the snark.

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24 Comments

  1. I hate to leave a negative review, but these stuck to the pan horribly. Then as I tried to scrape them off, they all got mangled. Big fail.1 star

    1. Sorry to hear that, Kristina! I know it is disappointing when a recipe does not turn out.

      Out of curiosity, did you make sure to preheat the pan in the oven before adding the fries? I have not had the same experience, nor have other reviewers, so I’d love to troubleshoot what might have gone wrong.

  2. Thanks for doing the hard work to get this recipe down!
     After making it, I could see how it could have gone wrong in many ways. I was lucky enough to have arrowroot from a different recipe, but wonder how cornstarch would do? I should have followed the recommended oil amount because I put a little too much and since they release a lot of steam it got a bit moist, less is better.
    I used the Trader Joe’s Butternut Squash Zig Zags, and they get a little delicate in the oven, so next time I won’t use tongs to flip and use a thin metal spatula.5 stars

  3. Holy COW these are so delicious. Perfectly seasoned, perfectly crispy, and so easy to make. These have become a staple in my house.5 stars

  4. 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?

  5. 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!5 stars

      1. Great! Thank you so much for passing the other recipe on. I usually add a lot of siracha too!

  6. 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!)