Five-Spice Butternut Squash in Cheesy Custard Recipe (2024)

Is squash skin tasty/edible?

I am wondering about the skin too. Also I am confused about the cream.It says 3/4 plus 1 tbsp. 3/4 what? I am assuming 3/4 cup.

Butternut squash is one of the easiest squashes to peel (with a vegetable peeler) and then slice up and de-seed. If you do want to remove the skin, peel it whole, before making any cuts in it. I tend to start at the round end and peel it in a circle, like you would an apple. Then, I peel the neck of the squash length-wise. If you find the veggie too slippery at this point, you can support the squash with a towel, put on anti-cut gloves, or wear laytex gloves.

Squash skin is edible, taste (to me) is neutral ... you have the option of cutting away the skin as you eat (similar to eating a baked potato)

I’m confused- do you use half the squash or the whole thing? It says, “reserving half for later use”. Why not just use a smaller squash?

Amazing dish!!!! Yes, you can keep the skin on (it gets soft when cooked as directed). Yes, only use half the butternut squash, yes the extra tablespoons of stock and cream are there in purpose, yes pour custard over squash (just don’t put cheese on top for final bake). Yes, uses a cast iron pan (buy one if you need to),Yes, make up your variations! This is a fantastic recipe, I am guessing it took months and months of development .Try to follow it exactly as written — at least the first time.

Made as written though served with a drizzle of Yotam’s tahini sauce along with the sesame topping. Delicious. Whilst it was a hit as a stand alone dish it would also be wonderful as a holiday side.

Squash skin is edible and adds to texture of this dish. This is excellent. The volume of custard can carry an entire butternut squash. This dish is a delightful mess of unusual flavors. Don’t skip the topping!!

Don’t skip the crunchy topping. We loved this dish. Microwave the whole squash for two minutes and it is easy to peel with a vegetable peeler. Hold it with a paper towel if it gets slippery.

Cook the squash whole on a sheet pan in a 350 degree Fahrenheit convection oven for 70 - 90 minutes. Maybe 10 degrees hotter for non convection. I’m going to try this custard dish. However, you could stop right there. Right before serving you could slice 1 1/2 inch rounds, top each round with salt, a large amount of white pepper and butter. Whether eating the squash as is, or with the custard, it is much less work than cutting a raw butternut squash. It’s likely to be better tasing too.

Made prep changes: 1. Cubed the squash, tossed the cubes in a bowl w/ the oil & spice, placed them in skillet, wiped shallots in remaining spices in the bowl. 2. After roasting, spooned back into the bowl so I could pour custard & sprinkle cheese w/out having to "avoid pouring on top of squash". Then I could spoon the squash onto the custard.I was skeptical about needing the sesame topping, so I served it on the side. We had our 1st taste w/out, we were wowed by how much better w/ topping!

Ingredients list says 200 mil like the chick stock above cream in list so 3/4 cup.

Variation. 1/2 recipe. Previously roasted, frozen squash cubes. Sautéed onion & garlic. Sprinkled 5 spice. Added finely diced kale. Stirred in squash and cooked to remove excess moisture. More 5 spice. Augmented 1/2 & 1;2. Used 1 whole egg & 1 egg yolk.Super delish and different than my usual quiches.

I'm going to do this without the custard. Sounds like a great way just to roast squash!

So good. I removed some of the skin with a peeler because I wasn't certain how much I'd love the skin with it on, but it turned out to be fine. The only thing I would change is to cut the shallots into smaller pieces after cooking because I didn't love the large pieces. Served with turmeric couscous and green beans. It was so delicious and even great the next day!

Made a variation last night without the custard, just the roasted seasoned squash and the sauce. Excellent. You do you, but I always peel the squash.

The five spice is overwhelmingAnd I like spices

I cooked this for the suggested amount of time or even somewhat longer, and the squash was still too hard when the custard was just right. Maybe because my squash was very large and fit too tightly in the pan?

Followed the recipe exactly.Perfect flavor balance and a hit with both the vegetarians and carnivores as a main dish.While there are several steps, it is not tricky or hard. Next time, I will put the squash in the pan skin down and flip it after it is rubbed with the spiced oil.

This was truly excellent! Everyone loved the flavors. We served this as a vegetarian main with a side salad for Christmas dinner. Made as written, except for doubling the recipe. Required us to use a sheet pan to cook the squash/shallots first and a large sauce pan to cook the final custard. I think the cooking time depends on the height of the custard in the pan, so it took us 45 min to cook the custard, upping the temperature to 350C for the last 20 minutes. I highly recommend this dish!

My husband is vegetarian so I decided to try this out for a special dinner on Christmas Day. It's certainly unlike anything I've made before and I think it turned out pretty well. We both loved the flavors. I made the recipe as is, and my only adjustment was that after I added the custard and put it back in the oven I had to cook it about 5 minutes longer than the recipe suggested until the custard was set properly.

Can I make this a day before?

Delicious and such an unusual combination of flavours and spices. I love keeping the squash intact in its original shape. Looks stunning.

This turned out great, but definitely needs some cooking time changes. I used a 12 inch cast iron. I peeled the squash and used both halves of the squash (but kept all other ingredient quantities the same). I cooked the squash in step 4 (first cooking) for 30 min, but it needed more. Next time I'll do longer. And the final cooking with the custard took about 45 min for the custard to fully set and be slightly browned like the photo. Used swiss cheese. Not really a complicated recipe and great.

Holy smokes this is insanely good!!! And unlike some other Ottolenghi recipes not proportionately complicated :) like other commenters suggested, I upped both baking times by ~5 min

I don't know how to say it better than other but this weird mix of ingredients is making my mouth water thinking about it. It's so decadent. I did not follow exactly: peeled a whole squash, cubed, mixed shallots, oil, spices and squash and then roasted until half-done. Poured the custard into the dish and spooned the squash on top. The custard took FOREVER to set. Approx. 1.5hr. I ended up whacking up the temp to get it done. Next time I will use a whole squash but not double the custard.

I’ve made this recipe a few times as a vegetarian dish for a holiday meal. This last time I baked the custard for 15 minutes so it was just slightly underdone and heated it up when I brought it over to the dinner party and it came out great. The reheating cooked the custard the rest of the way through and didn’t seem to have any negative affect.

I peeled the squash, and cooked the whole thing in a ceramic dish rather than a cast iron skillet. Many of the bake times needed to be longer with this set up. Served this to friends at a brunch and received rave reviews. It is a spectacular dish.

Tastes delicious but way too much work. Basically doing three separate recipes to make this dish. The custard is delicious and I might use that in a simpler way.

*Lovely dish made per recipe but for one "oops" when I discovered I had only 3 eggs. So instead of "4 to 5 egg yolks" specified I used 3 whole eggs and the custard still turned out silky and luscious. *Cooking times needed just a few more minutes at each step.*Shallots in this are so wonderful that I wished there were more of them. I may play with this recipe to make an all shallots dish with same seasonings, custard and topping.*I used an 11" All Clad stainless skillet not cast iron.