Butternut Squash Flan

Naomi Shulman

Naomi Shulman makes a Butternut Squash Flan recipe in this installment of KitchenDaily's Family Chef series, in which home cooks make recipes from our database and tell you how it went -- what they changed, what they kept and who was in the kitchen helping.

"Mommy, what are you going to do with all those butternut squash?"

It's that time of year: An army of bottom-heavy squash are standing at attention along the back of my kitchen counter, waiting for their orders. I've roasted them, braised them, pureed them, made soup with them, even managed to make a delicious bread with them. Leftover squash sit in both my fridge and freezer. I felt ready to widen my squash repertoire, however, thinking that maybe I could start experimenting with something to present at Thanksgiving -- which we always host for the extended family. When I happened upon this recipe for butternut squash flan, I felt I'd hit pay dirt. It was new, it looked easy, and it was fun to say. Just try it: Flan. Flan! Flaaaaan.

Anyway, I often play fast and loose with the instructions in recipes, but this one I followed pretty much to the letter. I even made sure to use the specified nonstick skillet and heatproof spatula. I strayed on only one teeny-tiny detail: I used ground nutmeg instead of freshly grated. I went to the trouble to chop up fresh sage and grate some fresh Parmesan, and I hoped those strong flavors would be enough to carry along a somewhat stale nutmeg.

While the directions did micromanage my cooking utensils, they left a few other things open to interpretation. For example, they didn't tell me exactly what stovetop temperatures to use, so I'll tell you how I did it: I cooked the onions and garlic at medium, then turned the flame up to medium-high for the squash so it could get nice and brown. Also, they didn't indicate that the squash should be peeled and deseeded before it was diced. Perhaps this is so obvious as to be unnecessary, but when I was weighing every squash in the house and finding them all a half-pound larger than called for, it suddenly occurred to me that they'd lose a little weight after those steps. So, just in case you're as literal a reader as I am, there's that.

Despite the ambiguities, the result was a really lovely twist on a fall staple. I didn't miss the fresh nutmeg one bit. I do think the dish could stand a tiny bit more salt -- I'll up that by another teaspoon or so. But I consider this a success, and I plan to serve this as a side at Thanksgiving.

P.S.: I didn't expect the girls to go for this. I wasn't even intending to make them eat any, beyond the usual just-one-bite dance we perform when we introduce new dishes. But when they came into the kitchen in their Halloween garb (Halloween starts in mid-October now, or hadn't you noticed?), Lila commented on how good something smelled. I leaped out of my seat to give the girls a taste.

"What's in it?" Lila immediately asked, suspicious at my enthusiasm.

"Cheese..." I said.

"And?"

"Eggs."

"And?"

"Just try it, honey."

And she liked it! Just goes to show you, ignorance is bliss, because when I revealed the secret (main) ingredient, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "It was okay. But I won't want any more."

Make the Butternut Squash Flan recipe.

Meet our team of Family Chef recipe "test drivers."
Learn how to peel, seed, and cut a butternut squash.
Browse all butternut squash recipes.
Find out what secret ingredient Gail Simmons adds to her butternut squash soup.
See how to create butternut squash bowling pins over on Holidash.

Naomi Shulman is a blogger and freelance writer. She lives and cooks with her husband, Chris, and daughters Lila (9) and Stella (6).