Air Fryer Butternut Squash with Mushrooms and Cranberries

This recipe is sponsored by ZenChef. All opinions are 100% my own.

Air Fryer Butternut Squash is a perfect holiday side dish. Especially with plenty of earthy mushrooms, savory green onions, and sweet-tart dried cranberries in the mix!

Table of Contents

• How to Make Butternut Squash in the Air Fryer
  • Preparing Your Butternut Squash for the Air Fryer
  • Recipe Shortcut
• About My Air Fryer

Air fryer butternut squash cooks in about half the time that it takes in a regular oven, and the results are tender and so flavorful.

Roasted chunks of butternut squash are perfect paired up with big pieces of earthy mushroom and green onions. The onions turn sweet with cooking! Toss with dried cranberries at the end, then serve this up as a healthy holiday side dish or even as the veggie star of a weeknight meal. It's that quick and easy to make!

If you've never had roasted green onions before, you're in for such a treat. I feel like leeks get all of the oniony glory in dishes like this, but green onions are more affordable and just as delicious, in my estimation.

How to Make Butternut Squash in the Air Fryer

This dish is super simple to make and very hands-off, once you're done prepping.

The prep is pretty simple, though you do need to do a careful job with the squash, which I get into detail about below. Start by peeling and dicing your butternut squash.

Next, slice green onions into 3"-long pieces and stem and quarter a package of button mushrooms.

Now, you're ready to toss those veggies together in a large bowl with the sauce ingredients. Transfer the mixture to your air fryer basket, and cook, shaking a few times, so everything cooks evenly.

When the cooking time is up, transfer the roasted squash mixture to your serving bowl and toss in tart-sweet dried cranberries.

That's it!

Preparing Your Butternut Squash for the Air Fryer

The key to this dish is prepping your squash properly, so the pieces will cook through evenly. Here's what you need to be sure to do:

• Peel it thoroughly. Butternut squash skin is thick, your vegetable peeler may not get all of the skin off on the first swipe. Keep peeling until the outside of our squash is the same, vibrant orange as the inside. Any tough skin will stay hard in the air fryer.
• Dice it well. The recipe calls for a 1" dice, and that is crucial. Large pieces will not cook through, and I don't want you to have undercooked squash!

If you're new to working with butternut squash, it's really not hard, but it can be a bit time-consuming. Make sure to peel thoroughly and dice evenly, and you'll be in good shape.

Recipe Shortcut

To save time and effort, you can often find pre-cut, fresh squash at the grocery store. It's normally in the same section as the other pre-cut veggies. The pieces may be a bit bigger than you need, but it's much faster to cut those down to size than to start with a whole squash.

Do not use frozen butternut squash in this recipe! I tested this with frozen squash, and it was very underwhelming. The squash tasted watery, no matter how long I cooked.

About My Air Fryer

Any time I share an air fryer recipe, people ask me which air fryer I recommend. Over the summer, ZenChef came on as a blog sponsor, and I am IN LOVE with their new air fryer, the ZenChef PRO XXL Air Fryer.

I’ve been experimenting with this air fryer for several months now, and I am all in. The basket is nice and large (5.8 quarts!), and I love the way it’s designed.

As you probably know, I am extremely picky about air fryers, and this basket design is the kind I like: it pops out for easy cleaning, and it has holes at the bottom (rather than mesh) for easy cleaning.

The ZenChef PRO XXL cooks things quickly, evenly and consistently. And, of course, you can use little to no oil, if that’s your thing.

This squash recipe does use a bit of oil to produce nice, browned pieces of squash, but you can substitute spray oil, if you prefer. The results will still be delicious!