This Roasted Stuffed Butternut Squash is filled with all your favorites – sausage, apples, cranberries, onions and garlic, kale, pecans and savory herbs. The stuffing is packed with savory/sweet flavors and the perfect addition to a holiday gathering, or for any meal! Paleo, gluten free, Whole30 compliant.
Each year I simply need to make a new recipe for stuffed squash. It’s one of my favorite meals (and side dishes) ever and I can’t get enough!
This year, I decided to go with a stuffed butternut squash recipe instead of my usual acorn squash. While the butternut squash takes a little bit longer to roast, it’s well worth it!
It’s comforting, nourishing, and addicting all at the same time! And of course, it’s such a crowd pleaser on Thanksgiving or whenever you’re having guests over.
Easy to throw together but looks so impressive and tastes even better.
What You Need to Make Sausage Stuffed Butternut Squash
For the stuffing, I went the sweet savory route as I typically do with acorn squash.
Sausage (use sugar-free to make it Whole30 compliant), veggies, herbs and spices for flavoring, apples and dried fruit.
Here’s everything you’ll need to make sausage stuffed butternut squash:
- 2 medium/large butternut squash
- avocado oil or olive oil
- Sea salt and black pepper
- Italian sausage
- onion
- garlic
- sage leaves
- rosemary leaves
- thyme leaves
- kale
- apple
- pecans
- dried cranberries (apple juice sweetened)
How to Make Sausage Stuffed Butternut Squash
Preheat your oven to 425° F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Cut open each butternut squash lengthwise so you have 4 long halves. Scoop out the seeds and strings, then drizzle with 2 Tbsp of the oil and sprinkle generously with sea salt and pepper. Place face down on the baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes, or until softened. Pressing the top of the squash will give you a sense of how soft it is without having to remove it from the oven.
Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Crumble the sausage into the skillet and cook until about 3/4 of the way done. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes until soft and fragrant. Add in the fresh herbs (or dried, if using) and continue to cook for another minute.
Stir in the kale, apples, and pecans and cook, stirring to combine flavors, for another minute or two until just softened. Remove from heat, stir in the cranberries, and season the mixture to taste with sea salt and black pepper.
Once the squash is done, allow it to cool for about 5 minutes, then use a spoon to carefully scoop out the flesh, leaving about 3/4” border around the sides and bottom. You can save the squash for another use, or even freeze it to keep longer.
Spoon the sausage mixture into the squash generously to use all of it up. Once filled, place the baking sheet under the broiler and broil until the top of the stuffing and squash are golden brown, 2-4 minutes or so. Garnish with additional fresh herbs if desired and enjoy!
Easy Substitutions for Stuffed Butternut Squash
You can easily sub in turkey or chicken sausage for the pork sausage if you choose. Actually, any ground meat can be used here, just make sure you season it well if it’s plain.
Other subs include spinach or any other greens for the kale, raisins for the cranberries, and dried herbs for the fresh. A pre-made poultry seasoning blend is also a delicious replacement for the herbs if you can’t find fresh ones.
I don’t recommend subbing anything for the apples since they add the perfect sweetness and crunch! Specifically, I love using either the honeycrisp or pink lady varieties since they stay sweet when cooked and don’t get mushy.
Also – this recipe can absolutely be made with acorn squash as well. You’ll need to adjust the roasting time for the smaller acorn squash, or you can use my ultimate stuffed acorn squash recipe instead.
What To Serve with Sausage Stuffed Butternut Squash
If you’re serving this stuffed butternut squash as a meal – you have everything you need!
If you’re serving it as a holiday side dish, it will go perfectly with some of my other favorite Thanksgiving and holiday side dishes. Here are some of my favorites:
Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
Roasted Garlic Mashed Cauliflower
Brussels Sprouts Salad with Bacon
Garlic Herb Paleo Dinner Rolls
I hope you’re ready for a delicious and seriously addicting recipe that’s going to WOW anyone who tastes it! Preheat your oven and grab your squash because it’s time to cook – let’s go!
Sausage Stuffed Butternut Squash {Paleo, Whole30}
Sausage Stuffed Butternut Squash {Paleo, Whole30}
Ingredients
- 2 med/large butternut squash
- 3 Tbsp avocado oil or olive oil, divided
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 1 lb Bulk Italian sausage
- 1 medium onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tbsp fresh sage leaves minced**
- 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary leaves minced**
- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves minced**
- 3 cups kale chopped
- 1 medium apple chopped (honeycrisp or pink lady)
- 1 cup pecans chopped
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries apple juice sweetened
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 425° F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
-
Cut open each butternut squash lengthwise so you have 4 long halves. Scoop out the seeds and strings, then drizzle with 2 Tbsp of the oil and sprinkle generously with sea salt and pepper. Place face down on the baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes, or until softened. Pressing the top of the squash will give you a sense of how soft it is without having to remove it from the oven.
-
Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Crumble the sausage into the skillet and cook until about 3/4 of the way done. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes until soft and fragrant. Add in the fresh herbs (or dried, if using) and continue to cook for another minute.
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Add in the kale, apples, and pecans and cook, stirring to combine flavors, for another minute or two until just softened. Remove from heat, stir in the cranberries, and season the mixture to taste with sea salt and black pepper.
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Once the squash is done, allow it to cool for about 5 minutes, then use a spoon to carefully scoop out the flesh, leaving about 3/4” border around the sides and bottom. You can save the squash for another use, or even freeze it to keep longer.
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Spoon the sausage mixture into the squash generously to use all of it up. Once filled, place the baking sheet under the broiler and broil until the top of the stuffing and squash are golden brown, 2-4 minutes or so. Garnish with additional fresh herbs if desired and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
**use 1 tsp each if using dried herbs
Nutrition
Want More Fall and Thanksgiving Inspired Whole30 and Paleo Recipes? Try one of These!
Ultimate Roasted Stuffed Acorn Squash
Caramelized Onion and Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash
Sausage and “Rice” Stuffed Acorn Squash
Roasted Delicata Squash Harvest Kale Salad
Butternut Squash Stuffing with Sausage, Apples and Cranberries
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It was amazing and too fascinating. I love your food. I will cook it for my family this weekend
Made it twice this week, absolutely delicious. Thanks for the recipe !
Remove the parchment paper before broiling. Mine caught on fire!
Of course..m you should never out parchment paper in a broiler 😂
We loved this. We’re particular about sausage, so used ground turkey breast seasoned with maple syrup, thyme, and sage. I added a little apple juice to the meat and veggie mixture for moistness. I missed the part about scooping out the squash shells, so I just spooned the meat over the cooked squash. One good-sized squash was sufficient for four servings.
This was amazing! So many flavors that compliment each other, and so good for you! It’s definitely comfort food for us paleo people! Thanks for this one. Eating leftovers tonight. Can’t wait!
This was very good. I doubled the dry herbs (I bet it was amazing with fresh herbs so I will do that next time, used turkey sausage and mixed the squash I scooped out with the mixture to make it stick together. So good!! Will definitely make this again. 🙂
I made this recipe. The best way I can describe the taste is savory.😁
How do you actually eat this? I made it and flavors were great, but we couldn’t figure out how to eat with the inedible skin on the squash. We ended up scraping everything out and making a hash on the plate. Tasted great, but wasn’t very fun to wrestle with it in order to get the actual edible parts away from squash skin. I would have just roasted edible chunks of squash and made sausage filling separately had I thought it through. Please advise
You can peel the squash before cooking. I am sure someone can provide a tip on how to peel after it’s been cooked.
I made this today but cut the recipe in half because there are just two of us. I left out the apples because I’m not a fan. And I mixed in the scooped out squash with the stuffing mixture before broiling it. It was delicious! I will definitely make this again. So flavorful! I bet a little goat cheese sprinkled on top would be good as well.
I tried this and sorry to say it wasn’t a hit in my house. I used beef sausage instead of pork, but the mixture of apples and pecans with the meat didn’t seem to go well together.
Beef doesn’t pair with pecans or cranberries. Pork or chicken sausage have flavors that compliments those items. So why change the recipe & then leave a one star review? That is unkind to the person who spent so much time making the recipe.
I agree with Lauren. Pork is traditionally served with apples, but beef sure isn’t. I used craft sausages but made sure their ingredients paired with apples. You are rating your own recipe, but it is reflected in the author’s rating, which is very misleading.
Delish! 12yo enjoyed!
I just baked the squash in cubes and served it in a layer under the rest. Left out the pecans due to a sensitivity. It was so good!! Easy, filling, wholesome, and delicious.
My stomach was saying full, but the taste buds were saying keep eating it is so good! Didn’t use the cranberries because I didn’t have them. Can’t wait to make it with them! Thank you!
This recipe is so delicious, healthy, filling, and beautiful to look at on the plate. Thank you for sharing. 🙏🏻🦋
I made the recipe exactly as written and it was DELICIOUS.
Thank you!
We loved this. The presentation was beautiful and it was oh so good! I used baby spinach instead of kale and I chopped up the squash and added it to the mixture. We loved it and will definitely make it again!
Is there any reason why you wouldn’t add the squash you scoop out back into the sausage mixture?
This was amazing! Seriously a new fave of the fam. I did as others suggested and added the squash that I took out back into the sausage mixture and it was great!
This was phenomenal! I cubed the squash and roasted it in my air fryer for 20 minutes at 390 degrees.
So delicious! Also put chunks of the cooked squash in the mixture. Didn’t have any rosemary so I’m wondering how much better it will be. Will definitely be making this again! Even my squash-snubbing husband loved it.
A big hit! Here’s what I did differently:
Didn’t have cranberries. Omitted.
Convinced myself this recipe called for celery when I was shopping for the ingredients. Whoops! so…i used it! Added it after the onion, before the apple.
Walnuts in place of pecans.
Topped with parmesan for the ppl in the fam who can have dairy.
Everyone loved it so much.
An amazing combination of flavors that blend so well. Simply delicious!
Amazing – mixed the ‘reserved’ squash back in as others suggested. Loved the flavor. A really easy, tasty and gluten free meal. Thank you!
I am almost done making it and can’t wait. I used anouille sausage. Didn’t have any apples or dried cranberries so I cut up dates, and used walnuts instead of pecans. I love a recipe that works with what I have on hand. I also added a squeeze of lemon juice at the end. Smells so good!
This was probably the most pleasure I had making a dish ever. We did non-sweet non-maple, plain breakfast sausage and used the fresh herbs listed. Wow. It smells so amazing. For future, I will personally broil for about a minute less than notated here. This will now be apart of my fall meal rotation. Thank you!
I’ve made this a couple of times and it’s absolutely delicious!
I’m going to make it again tonight, but instead of serving it IN the squash, I think I might try scooping out the squash and making a bed of it on the plate and adding the sausage mixture on top.
How would i portion this for a thanksgiving crowd?
Oh my!!!!!! I made this tonight, and it is our most loved recipe now. Thank you sooooo much for sharing it! I did not have cranberries; I substituted them with currants. I did not have pecans which would probably have made it even better if that was possible.
Very delicious. I subbed in spinach for the kale because we all dislike kale and used a Granny Smith because that is what I had on hand. No cranberries cause my store doesn’t have them in stock right now. Overall, very good. My kids were hit and miss with it. One was like it’s okay, two were skeptical but ate most of their portions, one just ate the meat out of it and the homemade bread I served with it.
This was amazing. I subbed walnuts for the pecans and it worked perfectly. I used this recipe in an acorn squash the second time.
I am thinking of making this for a dinner party. Can you suggest some side dishes that would go with this? It has so much in it already it is covering a lot of bases.
This looks like a great thanksgiving dish!
This was so good! Made me feel extra fancy but it was pretty simple and I will DEFINITELY be making it again. The honeycrisp apples were my favorite since the sausage is a little spicy. I even forgot the cranberries but I’ll add it when I heat the leftovers
This was delicious!! I did tweak a tiny bit, I used a chicken apple sausage instead of the Italian sausage and I also omitted the cranberries. I added the squash I scooped out into the sausage mixture and spooned a little on top before popping into the oven. Will definitely make again.
This was delicious! We subbed spinach for the kale because that’s what we had on hand and we prefer it over kale. So good we are making it for a dinner party. I’m serving it with an app of charcuterie and a big salad along with dessert. My guests will eat partial paleo for that night anyway!
So amazing!! I’m a little confused though, it has apple juice in the ingredient list but in the instructions there is no use for it.
This recipe is amazing. I made it a few days ago and my husband and I both loved it. It will be a new one in the menu rotation for fall and winter. Thank you.
This was a total failure at our house. Garlic and kale with apples and craisins—not a good combo.