Easy Roasted Butternut Squash Dip
Loaded with roasted butternut squash, roasted garlic and harissa, this 7-ingredient, Roasted Butternut Squash Dip is perfect for a backyard BBQ party, Mother’s Day brunch or even a movie night with your family.
And, it’s all thanks to those packages of pre-cut butternut squash that line the shelves of just about every grocery store, these days.
Those packages are a finger-saver for me! And, I cannot recall a grocery run when I didn’t come home with a package or two of those pre-cut butternut squash.
Simply roasted and lightly salted, butternut squash is pretty darn delicious!
Blend it up into a sauce with a bit of your favorite milk and a few spices and it makes for one lusciously creamy soup or even pasta sauce.
I even jazzed it up with enchilada sauce and enjoyed it immensely in this enchilada shakshuka.
And today I have it in this easy, 7-ingredient Roasted Butternut Squash Dip, for you!
This Roasted Butternut Squash Dip is so super easy to make. But, like I discovered when making this Charred Zucchini And Caramelized Onion Salad, technique goes along way.
Roasting up the butternut squash and blending it with roasted garlic alone adds so much flavor. But, when harissa and a smidge of coriander join the party, it’s like disco lights for your tastebuds! That is, if disco lights were/are (no judging) your thing.
1) Make sure to use roasted garlic.
You can use raw garlic, but, I have found that roasted garlic adds such a depth of flavor to this dip. And, instead of competing with the sweetness of the roasted butternut squash, it seems to complement it.
2) It’s ok to use substitutions.
I used store-bought harissa (but you can make your own using this recipe, if you’d like), which is a chili paste with spices like cumin and coriander in it. If you’d prefer a chili sauce/paste without cumin and coriander, then try sambal oelek. If you’d prefer something on the milder side, then use an equal amount of tomato paste.
3) Spin in some spice!
While harissa already has coriander in it, I love the smoky taste of coriander and used a smidge more. Now, you can use a bit of cumin or curry powder or garam masala instead, if you prefer. Instead of using extra oil in this dish, I turned to spices to amp up it’s flavor.
I also used a can of chickpeas in this dip to thicken it up and give this dip a nice protein boost. This dip is delicious slightly warm but it is also delicious served at room temperature. If you have leftovers, they can be refrigerated for upto 3 days. But, who am I kidding, you aren’t going to have leftovers.
While we started off dipping celery, chips and some Spinach Pakoras (from Asha’s cookbook) into this dip, we polished off the last of it with spoons and …gah.. dare I say it… our fingers!
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Ingredients
- 1 16 oz pkg pre cut butternut squash (2 cups approx)
- 1/2 garlic head roasted
- 1 can chickpeas
- 1/2 lime
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1/3 cup harissa
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- salt and pepper
- oil I used olive oil
Instructions
- Pre heat your oven to 400 degrees F.
- While your oven is preheating, line a baking tray with foil and place the butternut squash on it and sprinkle the butternut squash with a slight drizzle of oil.
- Take 1/2 a head of garlic (you can roast the whole head and use half of the roasted head of garlic or break it off and roast only half of it). Cut the ends off the garlic. Just sprinkle a bit of oil on the garlic, place it in a piece of foil and wrap the foil around it. You can place it on the same tray as the butternut squash is on.
- Place the tray with the butternut squash and the garlic in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Let garlic cool a bit so you can handle it and squeeze the roasted garlic out of the cut ends into a blender/ food processor.
- Add in the roasted butternut squash, harissa, chickpeas, lime, coriander, and vinegar and blend till well incorporated.
- Season with salt and pepper according to your taste and serve with chips, veggies and/or pakoras!
Notes
Nutrition
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This looks delicious! The addition of harissa is perfect, and I LOVE how you incorporated chickpeas to make it more substantial. I could eat this for a meal!
Wow! This truly sounds amazing! Butternut is one of my favorite! You’ve kind of made it into hummus, another favorite! I am totally making this for Mother’s day!
this looks absolutely bomb!! So delicious! What a marvelous idea!
Yay for pre-cut! Sometimes those suckers can be a paid to chop up! Plus, having the cutting done, makes it easy to get on with the recipe…ergo, get to eat it, lol.
Love that you used roasted garlic here – totally my jam! I’m always up for a good dip so I gotta try this one out soon. I could legit have this for dinner and call it a day! With chips, of course 😉 Hope you’re having a wonderful week, my friend! XOXO
This dip sounds fabulous, and your photos are absolutely gorgeous!
What a beautiful Color this is, This dip looks amazing. Addition of chickpeas definitely add the protien.
Wonderful! And such a beautiful color! Paprika Creme would be another alternative as well, and it’s also a pretty color like harissa. Beautiful photos!
So bring on the disco lights, and I’m gonna stop buying stock in Band-Aid. Ha ha. What an incredible dip my friend, loving that chopped butternut squash at the store too. I will never peel/chop another butternut squash. Talk about a hard veggie! But wow, what a great dip it makes and I’m loving all the colors and flavors going on here – harissa and coriander. And the lime. AND the chickpeas!!! Great protein boost. This dip is a winner through and through. I also popped over to check out your creamy butternut squash soup. And so glad I did. Yummo. Have a super week my friend, thanks for brightening mine! xoxo
Glad your Band-Aid usage is down. 🙂 This is a terrific looking dish — gorgeous color, and I’ll bet the flavor is outta sight. Good stuff — thanks.
So delicious! How I wish I could get some butternut now.
Cutting butternut squash can be hazardous, so buying the pre-cut variety is very helpful, not to mention easy! I love using roasted butternut in my hummus so I’m all over this beautiful dip! I love that you spiced it up with harissa too — it looks so good!
Yes! I do love butternut squash, but cutting those darned things is always such a pain. Great idea to just get the pre-cut bags. That’s a great kitchen hack! Also, this dip. Laura and I were just talking about harissa the other day. A Moroccan restaurant opened recently here in town, and they have a garlic-Harissa spread that was amazing! (Spicy as heck, but amazing.) I’m thinking the flavors would be something similar to this dip. I definitely need to grab some harissa to make this one…it sounds delicious, Shashi!
This looks delicious! The addition of harissa is perfect, and I LOVE how you incorporated chickpeas to make it more substantial. I could eat this for a meal!
Wow! This truly sounds amazing! Butternut is one of my favorite! You’ve kind of made it into hummus, another favorite! I am totally making this for Mother’s day!
this looks absolutely bomb!! So delicious! What a marvelous idea!
Yay for pre-cut! Sometimes those suckers can be a paid to chop up! Plus, having the cutting done, makes it easy to get on with the recipe…ergo, get to eat it, lol.
Love that you used roasted garlic here – totally my jam! I’m always up for a good dip so I gotta try this one out soon. I could legit have this for dinner and call it a day! With chips, of course 😉 Hope you’re having a wonderful week, my friend! XOXO
This dip sounds fabulous, and your photos are absolutely gorgeous!
So bring on the disco lights, and I’m gonna stop buying stock in Band-Aid. Ha ha. What an incredible dip my friend, loving that chopped butternut squash at the store too. I will never peel/chop another butternut squash. Talk about a hard veggie! But wow, what a great dip it makes and I’m loving all the colors and flavors going on here – harissa and coriander. And the lime. AND the chickpeas!!! Great protein boost. This dip is a winner through and through. I also popped over to check out your creamy butternut squash soup. And so glad I did. Yummo. Have a super week my friend, thanks for brightening mine! xoxo
Cutting butternut squash can be hazardous, so buying the pre-cut variety is very helpful, not to mention easy! I love using roasted butternut in my hummus so I’m all over this beautiful dip! I love that you spiced it up with harissa too — it looks so good!
This was extremely flavorful but next time I’d use less harissa, a bit too much kick for some people. Very good, though!
I reall want this to work but we need more specifics. Is it lime juice or the peel too? What size is the can of beans? Should the liquid go in too? As it is, there is not enough liquid for the blender to work. Should I add olive oil?