If it's not too dumb a question that is!

I was fleetingly tempted to buy one in Sainsbury's last week where they were on special offer, and make a soup. But I thought it might be helpful to at least have an idea of what to expect in terms of flavour or something to compare it to.

Spooky! I made a butternut squash and sage risotto last night! Cut into chunks and roasted it's lovely, like swede in texture but sweeter. I love squash.

It makes lovely soup, I roast it with a few cloves of garlic, a sweet red pepper and a few sprinkles of chilli flakes. Then blend it, add water/stock to your own consistency. Mmmm

Ambles off to go shopping for a butternut squash

Thanks for your replies, you've sold it to me!

I love swede and the soup sounds great. I will add it to my shopping list*.

* assuming sem1 hasn't bought all the stock on his/her shopping trip!

I've had it in restaurants (because they chuck it in vegetarian food a lot) and wasn't sold on it. So I'd be interested to hear how you fare, jojo. I love swede, as a side dish.

swede mashed I like. Butternut squash - roasted or nothing. WIthout roasting and herbs I find the texture and flavour not nice at all. Also interested to know what you think

I love it cut into chunks with carrot, swede and onion (all cut in chunks) sprinkle with a little olive oil and dried herbs and garlic..........roast till cooked and a lovely caremalised colour....yummy veg.

Squash is really nice made into wedges! The sweetness really caramelises in the oven. Mmm.

I do the same, so tasty!

I think it needs a roasting recipe to caremalise the sugars- roast wedges with brown sugar or honey or balsamic- slow cooked so the centre is gooey and not fibrous

They make great soups, lovely colour. If you have some Thai curry paste you could try one of these from my blog:
http://live-love-laugh-and-eat.blogs...pkin-soup.html
http://live-love-laugh-and-eat.blogs...thing-new.html

Having grown up in Australia where pumpkin and butternut pumpkins (as we call them) are far more common honestly I love the stuff.
To me a roast dinner just isn't complete without pumpkin.

Pumpkin soup is also the norm i use coriander with mine and a dash of sour cream when serving.

Is it possible to DESCRIBE the taste of any food to another person ?
I would say to the OP - Just go out and buy a butternut squash and cook it !
They're not that expensive !

Butternut squash is delicious. Roasted, with a bit of olive oil and Rosemary, Nigella encapsulated it perfectly - "golden cubes of gorgeousness". 'Skin' on, too - the entire thing is extremely nutritious as well as tasty and textury.

I find it tastes a little like sweet potato.

I love butternut squash roasted with garlic and red onion. I usually have it with roast dinners and finish the rest by mashing it with potato to put on top of a cottage pie. hmmm lovely.

I totally agree.

BNS only nice for me when roasted otherwise its irky

Roasted with cumin and chilli for chicken/beef is my favourite or Sage and onion for pork or rosemary and garlic with lamb.

Sometimes swede can stay hard but BNS never does.

Update: I bought one while shopping on Friday afternoon and I will be making a soup today!

And thanks for your continued descriptions

Update no. 2: I've made the soup!

I roasted the squash with onions and garlic and a sprinkle of chili flakes. When I took it out of the oven, I tried a bit of squash and liked it.

Then made it into soup - however, I find the soup distinctly 'average'!

So if I buy it again, I'll just roast it, although I like the idea of using it as a topping for a cottage pie too.

Yes Jojo you must spice it up and don't add that much stock, otherwise it can be a bit boring.

I like to add some sweet potato and a red chilli or two to my butternut squash soup. It's my favourite, alongside swede and rosemary...

I always add toasted and ground coriander seeds. I adds a bit of zing.

it's a bugger to peel though, I did see the lovely Valentine Warner roast one, maybe it was pumpkin, same thing, and kept skin on, drizzle of olive oil, parmesan, salt n pepper

Oh god ! There is no need to peel at all, at all.

Any chance of you putting this recipe on here! Please!

I did add some chili flakes which gave it some heat but I still wasn't that impressed! It tastes a bit similar to the carrot and lentil soup I sometimes make!