Gently push the knife through the skin until you feel it is secure in the meat of the squash and not going to slip, then apply more pressure to cut through the squash. Throw away or compost the portion of squash you cut off.
Remove the skin completely, but don’t peel so deeply that you remove too much of the squash’s meat. You may find that a Y-shaped peeler with a serrated blade is the best choice to peel the skin. Poke holes in the skin of the squash with a fork and microwave it for 2 minutes to make peeling easier. [3] X Research source
If you struggle to get the knife through the squash, try using a mallet to hammer the knife through. Be extremely careful: You don’t want to cut yourself or have the butternut squash fly across your kitchen. Gently tap the flat ends of the knife with the mallet, alternating between the tip end and the handle end to move the knife evenly through the squash.
You can throw the seeds away or rinse the pulp off, toss the seeds with oil and salt, and roast them in the oven.
You will now have 4 sections of butternut squash, 2 long narrow halves and 2 shorter, more bulbous halves.
You can stack several pieces when making this cut, allowing you to cut several strips at one time.
You should get 4 cups of cubes from a one and a half pound butternut squash.
