AirFryday: Caramelised butternut boats in your air fryer

Butternut is a superb squash to cook in various ways — as a soup, puréed, steamed, roasted, even boiled — but they are easy to undercook as well as overcook. The other day, I figured out the best way of all, in my experience, and it happens in an air fryer.

It’s best to think of a butternut in the same category as the kind of ingredient that needs to be scored or pricked to ensure even cooking right to its core. The way you score the fat on a slab of pork belly, or prick holes in large potatoes before baking them.

A butternut is very hard. Bricks come to mind. So maybe we should even have abalone in mind when approaching this gourd — so dense that it seems almost impossible to get it properly tender.

Oven roasting a butternut has always been a good option, but any honest cook will admit that there have been times when it’s been left in the oven for too long and has dried up like an unloved old shoe. Or the time has come when everything else is ready to serve and when you push a small, sharp knife to its centre there’s way too much resistance. It’s barely half cooked.

So I decided to find a way to roast a large butternut in an air fryer and ensure that it is succulent, cooked all the way through, but still moist and caramelised.

And here is how I did that…

Tony’s perfectly delicious butternut roasted in an air fryer

(Per 1 large butternut)

Ingredients

1 large butternut (unpeeled)

Extra virgin olive oil (enough to coat the cut sides of two butternut halves, and also to fill the cavity in each of them)

Garlic salt

Black pepper

1 additional herb or spice such as paprika, cayenne pepper, thyme, ground cumin or dried oregano

Fresh oregano, thyme or other herb to garnish

Method

You’ll notice that I feel there’s no point in giving precise quantities for the ingredients, in this instance. The cavities of butternuts are not identical in size; some are deeper, others shallow. The flat surface when cut also differs from squash to squash.

The point is to use enough oil and seasoning to cover the exposed areas fairly generously and evenly.

You don’t need to peel the butternut. Just slice it neatly in half so that each “boat” is of around the same dimensions. Scoop out the seeds and discard.

But more to the point is the scoring. Use a small, sharp knife to cut almost all the way to the skin, but be certain to stop before you’ve gone too far.

Score in two directions, along the length and across the width — twice for the length, and three or four times for the breadth. Like this:

Next, pour some olive oil into a ramekin (about 4 Tbsp, but you don’t need to measure). Dip a brush into the oil and paint the flat surfaces of each half. Then, fill the cavities almost to the brim, but just short of the top. This will be a resource to use during the air fryer cook.

Season with garlic salt, black pepper, and any spice or herb of your choice.

Preheat the air fryer to 180°C. 

Place the “boats” in the machine and set it to roast for 30 minutes at 180°C.

After 10 minutes of that time, and then after another 10 minutes, open the drawer/door and, using a teaspoon, scoop oil from the cavity to baste the flat parts.

You can baste more often if you like. The point is to keep the hard flesh moistened while it slowly turns tender.

After 30 minutes has passed, baste with oil again, and set the machine for another 10 minutes. And yes, baste a couple of times along the way.

I found that the butternut boats were perfectly cooked, wonderfully moist, and just delicious.

Garnish with your choice of herb.

Note that a smaller butternut may cook a little quicker, so adjust the cooking time if they seem to be cooked sooner. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award, in 2021 and 2023.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.