Ack.. Cinco De mayo is coming up too soon. so lets make some Tacos!
These super easy Shredded Butternut Squash Tacos. Shred the squash or use a spiralizer to make noodles. Cook it up with Chipotle sauce or roasted pasilla chile or guajillo chile sauce. Serve it up on soft tacos with greens, red cabbage, jalapenos, salsa, cilantro and all the fix ins. The squash does not get all mushy and stays shredded. It takes 10+ minutes to go from crunchy to soft. Cook to preference for texture.
Add some black beans or chickpeas or corn to the butternut, add the squash to burritos or make skinny taquitos.
More Tacos and Mexican dishes.
Chickpea Cauliflower Tacos with lentil bean tortillas. GF
White Bean Quesadilla.
Nacho Mac Casserole
Refried Bean Pizza
Stuffed Avocados GF
Steps:
Shred the Butternut or Spaghetti or other squash. Or use shredded jackfruit.
Add to a pan with oil and roast for 2 minutes. Add the sauce and spices and mix well.
Cook until tender. Prepare the toppings. Load up the Tortillas with greens, cabbage, squash, salsa, sour cream, avocado and more.
Serve warm.
Pulled Butternut Squash Tacos
Ingredients
For Pulled Butternut
- 1/2 (0.5 ) butternut squash 3 loaded cups shredded
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) salt
- 1/4 cup (34.27 ml) + 2 Tbsp traditional Chipotle sauce or use bbq sauce + taco spice
- Or use my Chipotle Garlic Sauce (use less water)
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) oregano
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) garlic powder
- generous dash of black pepper
- a generous dash of chipotle pepper powder
- 2 Tbsp water
For Tacos
- Corn chia Tortillas or regular tortillas
- pickled Jalapenos
- pico de gallo
- Red cabbage slaw or shredded cabbage toss the cabbage in salt, pepper and lemon juice, add crunchy shredded veggies like carrot for added texture.
- Avocado or guacamole
- Vegan sour cream or vegan chipotle ranch
- Cilantro & lemon juice
Instructions
- In a large pan, add oil and heat at medium heat.
- Add the squash and salt and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add Chipotle sauce, cumin, oregano, garlic, black pepper and chipotle pepper powder and water. Mix well.
- Cover and cook for 10-12 minutes until the squash is tender. do not overcook or overstir. Stir 2-3 times in between. Taste and adjust sauce, salt, spice.
- Layer greens and cabbage on the tortillas, add the squash, a drizzle of lemon juice, sour cream or chipotle ranch, guacamole, jalapenos and chopped cilantro. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
I made this tonight, and we really enjoyed it, BUT
I made one slip—the only chipolte sauce I could find at the market happened to be a chipolte “barbeque” sauce!!! so my squash was a little sweet and overpowered the tacos which we filled with black beans, a seasoned red cabbage slaw, and avocado.
Richa, is there another type of chipolte sauce out there that I could have used?
Is that a cilantro sauce in the pictures? Would love a recipe for that sauce, doesn’t seem to be included in this recipe.
Its just avocado cilantro lime salt and pepper.
interesting recipe but would have to leave out the sour cream / ranch to be vegan. also wonder – for a meal, where’s the protein.? Still a great side dish recipe.
its vegan sour cream and vegan ranch. its a vegan site and vegan recipe. you can add beans to it. the ranch i use is usually cashew based, so that adds enough protein for a light meal.
Hi Richa, do you make your cashew based chipotle ranch or do you purchase it? i would love to buy some.
I’m trying these tonight!!
Thanks
Has anyone tried with spaghetti squash? I noticed at the top of the post you mentioned that you could also use spaghetti squash
Could you cook the butternut squash first, shred it, then stir in towards the end?
it will not shred then. the squash becomes too soft when cooked. You can cube it to small pieces, toss in the sauces, heat up and add to the tacos.
I used your idea here and added pintos and hominy and made “three sisters” tacos. Thanks for the inspiration.
Such a fun and amazing recipe Richa!
Wow this looks unbelievable- I’ve never thought of using butternut squash as a pulled “pork”. Can’t wait to try it!
We don’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the UK but I would definitely try these, they look yum 🙂 How would you shred a butternut, though? They’re a bit tough, I’m afraid they’d break my spiraliser and grater.
i used a large grater and a husband 🙂 the large steel grater. something like this https://www.amazon.com/Adcraft-GS-25-Height-Stainless-4-Sided/dp/B004NG9EBS is quite sturdy. or you can use the shredder blade in a food processor.
Ha – I was wondering the same thing, my spiraliser would never hold up against butternut. “Oh husband of mine…”
yeah large sturdy grater and husband it is then.
Genius! I never would have thought to do something like this with the squash — I love it! 🙂
Tacos are one of my absolute favorite foods, but we tend to be pretty boring with them (because if they’re already delicious, why reinvent the wheel?). Totally loving this idea! Beats the pants off seasoned TVP, that’s for sure!
What a clever idea! Hopefully I’ll get these in before Cinco de Mayo!
genius!!! i cannot wait to make these, lady. they look phenomenal.
What a great idea! This looks delicious, I love Mexican food and I love including lots of vegetables in my meals, so this is the perfect dish for me 🙂
That’s a delightful use of flavours and colours in this tacos!
Brilliant! I can’t wait to try these. I love finding vegan variations on traditional meat dishes. 🙂
WHOA! I do not usually feel compelled by savory stuff, but these tacos sound so dreamy. I am all about using more vegetables since I am not the biggest fan of mock meat!
they are on the sweet side. 🙂
you are a freakin genius!
These look gorgeous — I’m already dreaming about dinner! I love the idea of adding black beans and corn, too.
Thanks Richal, all these recipes look so good!
Genius! It’s funny because I accidentally made something similar with butternut squash the other day, but didn’t think to use it this way at all!
Wow, I never would have thought of using butternut squash as a meat analogue! That’s pretty unique. Will have to celebrate Cinco de Mayo right along with you 🙂