7 Reasons and Ways to Love Butternut Squash
Apparently, Native Americans used bury their dead along with Butternut Squash in order to provide nourishment to the deceased on their final journey.
I don’t think that happens too often any more, but if you’re not very familiar with butternut squash, I’d encourage you to work on changing that.
In Paleo-land, sweet potatoes are hugely popular, and I completely understand why. I love sweet potatoes, after all. But if you want a bit of variety from your starchy tubers, one excellent choice is butternut squash.
When Louise and I roast veggies, butternut squash is usually one of the first veggies we choose. It’s sweet (but not too sweet) and subtly complex.
In addition, Butternut Squash is versatile and can be prepared many ways, and it’s relatively inexpensive.
However, there are many other reasons that butternut squash is an amazing addition to a healthy diet—its nutrient profile is well-rounded, for instance.
4 Other Reasons to Eat Butternut Squash
1. Calcium: Butternut squash is rich in calcium, which helps your bones stay strong and streamlines important cellular functions in your body, including muscle contractions. Since your heart muscle is contracting all the time, you don’t want to be stingy on the calcium!
2. Vitamin C: Just one serving of butternut squash gives you half of your recommended daily amount of vitamin C. Your body uses vitamin C to grow and repair tissues—not just skin, but tendons, blood vessels, and muscles too.
3. Vitamin A: Clocking in at a whopping 450% daily value per serving, butternut squash certainly doesn’t skimp on the vitamin A. With all that goodness, your body can strengthen its immune system, fight against some types of cancer, and even see better in the dark. (Note that it’s almost all in the form of Beta-Carotene, which is good, but not nearly as good as the forms of Vitamin A you’d get from many seafood or meat products.)
4. Easy to Prepare: One of the best things about butternut squash is that you can get all of these delicious benefits with very little work. Cooking squash is super easy, and with such a huge variety of recipes to choose from, you won’t have a hard time finding a dish for everyone.
3 Awesome Ways to Eat Butternut Squash
1. Soup: Because they’re soft and sweet, butternut squash makes a great soup (try this recipe). It’s easy to puree and goes well with pumpkin seeds and even rice. Use any leftover soup as a gravy for main dishes like chicken.
2. Bread and Pancakes: You read that right—butternut squashes make excellent breads. Whether you choose to make a butternut batter for pancakes or throw some smooth squash into your banana bread (making for an extra moist treat!), the squash adds rich, natural sweetness without the taste of vegetables.
3. By Itself: These squash are super easy to prepare, so you can cook them by boiling, steaming, baking, roasting, and even microwaving them!
Because they’re easy to prepare and can be incorporated into a wide variety of dishes, butternut squash really takes the cake when it comes to great Paleo food.
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