Healthy Winter Squash Recipes

This vegan pumpkin soup, filled with spices and creamy cashews, can make an easy weeknight dinner or be elevated to a vegan main dish worthy of a holiday dinner by serving it in a hollowed-out freshly roasted pumpkin.

This easy soup recipe mixes in allspice, curry powder, spicy chiles and ginger to give this pumpkin curry soup a Jamaican feel. While habanero is traditional, jalapeños provide a mellower kick.

These healthy pumpkin-oatmeal muffins will get you in the mood for fall. Sprinkling the muffins with pecans adds a nutty crunch to every bite. Serve them for breakfast or as a grab-and-go snack.

Butternut squash noodles make a great low-carb stand-in for pasta or can be an easy side dish that complements just about everything. We kept this recipe simple with just a hint of fresh thyme and savory Parmesan cheese. Look for fresh or frozen butternut squash noodles or spiralize them yourself using the long, thin neck of a large squash.

These pumpkin sugar cookies are soft and moist with just the right amount of spice and a delicate pumpkin flavor topped off with a nice lightly spiced glaze. They're perfect for a fall after-school snack or light dessert.

This easy frittata recipe is full of fall flavors, thanks to creamy butternut squash, plenty of fresh sage, and earthy lacinato kale.

Trendy whipped coffee meets classic PSL! This warm, just-sweet-enough version calls for maple syrup and pumpkin puree (no flavored syrups here!) and is spiked with pumpkin pie spice for the coziest spin on the latest coffee craze. Be sure to stir the whipped coffee into the steamed milk before drinking.

These tender pumpkin-oatmeal cookies have the perfect amount of sweetness from brown sugar and raisins and a slightly nutty flavor from almond butter. Enjoy them as an after-school snack or a healthy dessert. Several testers also said they'd love to eat them with a cup of coffee in the morning.

This pumpkin spice bread recipe is a snap to pull together. Pumpkin puree and maple syrup add sweetness to help cut down the amount of added sugar while ensuring this healthy loaf stays moist and tender. This easy quick bread is finished off with a sweetened cream cheese spread over the top to complement the spices.

This delicious, cheesy, full-flavored pesto-stuffed spaghetti squash is hearty and filling, full of vegetables and topped with melted fresh mozzarella cheese. It's a perfect main dish for vegetarians and nonvegetarians alike!

This loaded spaghetti squash recipe has all the fixings of a classic baked potato, but with a fraction of the carbs. The pasta-like spaghetti squash is combined with Cheddar cheese, bacon and scallions that melt together in the oven. Top with sour cream and garnish with more scallions and bacon and you have a delicious low-carb side dish ready to go.

On Crete, chickpeas are commonly flavored with Seville orange, a pleasingly bitter variety grown locally. Orange zest along with lemon juice makes a good substitute. A little mustard deepens the flavor.

One of the tasters of this dairy-free pumpkin pie called it a "vegan's dream come true." The filling has just the right amount of spice, while the crust--made with part whole-wheat flour--has a wonderful nutty flavor and crispy texture. The pie is great as is, but to really please the plant-based eaters at your Thanksgiving table, top it with Coconut Whipped Cream (see Associated Recipes).

Let this cute little vegetarian stuffed squash side dish steal the show at the dinner table! Butternut squash is stuffed with a sweet and savory filling that gets a crispy finish under the broiler. If you can't find small butternut squash, honeynut squash is a great alternative. Shaped much like a butternut squash (but smaller), the honeynut squash has a deep orange skin and sweet flesh.

Umami-rich shiitake mushrooms take the place of meat, and spaghetti squash strands stand in for the traditional rice noodles, in this riff on the classic Filipino noodle dish pancit bihon. Serve alongside your favorite vegan main or add some cubed tofu to make it a meal.

This vegan soup recipe is chock-full of colorful vegetables. All those veggies give this soup plenty of fiber, upping the satisfaction factor while keeping calories low, which can aid in weight loss and lead to--yes--a flatter belly. Vibrant turmeric adds a golden color to the flavorful broth, while cumin and ginger give it a bright, fresh finish. And the best part? This healthy soup recipe takes only 20 minutes, start to finish!

Roasting the vegetables to fill this homemade ravioli yields a more intense flavor.

Sweet squash gives French onion dip a colorful nutrition boost (namely, vitamins A and E). Serve with chips and crunchy crudités.

Strands of tender squash replace pasta for a more flavorful version of spaghetti pie casserole. Not to mention, spaghetti squash is a low-carb alternative to pasta and saves more than 150 calories per serving compared to a traditional recipe. A sprinkling of nutty fontina cheese melts into a gooey topping.

This flavorful vegan dinner is a veggie version of the Louisiana classic. It's chock-full of butternut squash, tomatoes, poblano peppers and okra, to name just a few. This vegetarian gumbo is a quick dinner packed with flavor and spice that's done in only 30 minutes. To make it a meal, serve it with cornbread drizzled with olive oil.