Maple Bacon Butternut Squash and Apple Bake

This Maple Bacon Butternut Squash and Apple Bake is an easy and fun fall side dish! This recipe would be great for a Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving celebration, but also perfectly at home on your dinner table served on the side of a meaty main course. I love the contrast of salty, smoky bacon with the maple cinnamon sweetness coating the butternut squash and apples. Plus, as you may imagine, it smells amazing. A rounded ¾ cup serving of this delicious side dish is just 156 calories or 3 WW Points on Weight Watchers (or 5 Points if following the diabetic WW plan). To view and track this recipe in the WW app, click here!

I adapted this recipe from the super delicious looking Butternut Squash Apple Bake on A Cedar Spoon, but I wanted a salty, savory, crispy bacon topping rather than staying in the sweeter realm. I had in my head a casserole dish of apples and butternut squash with maple flavor and bacon, and when I found that recipe, it was so close to what I had in mind! Her original recipe has a raisin, craisin, and pecan topping and uses brown sugar, which also sounds amazing, so check it out if that’s more what you’re in the mood for!

Recipe Notes

• Butternut Squash: I bought already cubed butternut squash in the produce section at my grocery store, and I highly recommend it as a time-saver if you have that option! Otherwise, you can of course buy a butternut squash and peel it, remove the seeds, and chop it into ¾” – 1” cubes.
• Apples: I used Gala apples which worked great, but Empire, Cortland, Honeycrisp, Fuji, or any other firm/crisp apple that works well for baking would be good in this Maple Bacon Butternut Squash and Apple Bake.
• Bacon: I pretty much always use center cut bacon in my recipes. It’s just a leaner cut of regular bacon, so it tastes delicious and crisps up nicely. I generally buy Oscar Mayer brand, but any brand of center cut bacon should be good!
• Maple Syrup: Real maple syrup, as opposed to other types of breakfast syrup, gives this recipe the perfect amount of sweetness and flavor. Plus it makes the whole dish smell incredible. You won’t use a ton of it in this recipe, but it’s totally worth it to use the real thing.
• Serving Size: When I measured out the contents of this Maple Bacon Butternut Squash and Apple Bake it came out to around 7 cups total. The recipe makes eight servings, so it doesn’t divide perfectly into an easily measurable amount. Since the actual serving size is 0.875 of a cup, I decided to just call it a rounded ¾ cup. So, measure out a ¾ cup and then give it an extra little scoop.

More Tasty Lightened Up Side Dish Recipes

Looking for more tasty, lightened up fall side dish recipes like this Maple Bacon Butternut Squash Apple Bake? Try my Stovetop Cinnamon Apples, Bacon Broccoli Side Skillet, Air Fryer Garlic Balsamic Green Beans, Apple Farro Salad, Easy Slow Cooker Carrots, Warm Butternut Squash Farro Salad, Apple Coleslaw, Green Bean Casserole, Broccoli Cheddar Twice Baked Potatoes, Air Fryer Cajun Potatoes, Stovetop Green Beans with Almonds, Garlic Herb Mushrooms, and many, many more in the Side Dishes section of my recipe index!

Maple Bacon Butternut Squash and Apple Bake

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 55 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Yield: 8 (rounded ¾ cup) servings

This Maple Bacon Butternut Squash and Apple Bake is an easy and fun fall side dish, perfect for Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, or dinner at home!

• 3 medium apples, peeled and chopped into cubes (I used Gala apples)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 lbs cubed uncooked butternut squash, cut into ¾” – 1” cubes
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons salted butter
• 2 ⅓ tablespoons maple syrup, divided (2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon)
• 6 slices center cut bacon

• Pre-heat the oven to 400.

• Place the peeled and chopped apples into a large mixing bowl and add the lemon juice. Stir to coat the apples. Add the butternut squash and mix together. Sprinkle with the cinnamon, salt, and pepper, and add the vanilla extract. Stir until evenly coated.

• Melt the butter in the microwave and then stir in two tablespoons of the maple syrup. Pour the maple butter over the squash and apples and stir until coated. Transfer the entire mixture to a baking dish (I used a 9×13) and spread out evenly. Cover the baking dish snugly with aluminum foil (or a lid if you have one) and bake in the oven covered for 45 minutes or until the squash is fork-tender.

• While the squash and apples are baking, cook the bacon according to package instructions and set on paper towels to drain. Chop the bacon into small pieces and place it in a small bowl. Drizzle the bacon with the remaining teaspoon of maple syrup and then stir to coat the bacon.

• When the squash is fork-tender, uncover the baking dish and sprinkle the maple bacon pieces evenly across the top. Return to the oven uncovered and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the bacon is sizzling and the squash and apples are cooked through.

To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
WW Points per (rounded ¾ cup) serving: 3* (Points calculated using the recipe builder in the WW app)
*or 5 Points if following the diabetic WW plan
Nutrition Information per (rounded ¾ cup) serving:
156 calories, 31 g carbs, 15 g sugars, 5 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 2 g protein, 5 g fiber, 116 mg sodium (from myfitnesspal.com)
Weight Watchers Points Plus:
4 per (rounded ¾ cup) serving (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition info)
Adapted from A Cedar Spoon

Author: Emily Bites

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American