First, the boring but crucial truth: butternut squash is both. Yes, you read that right. It’s a vegetable that acts like a carb. Think of it as the über vegetable—the one that bulk buys gym memberships and still eats cake.
Botanically, it’s a fruit. That’s right, it has seeds. But we treat it like a vegetable because it’s not sweet like a peach. It’s sneaky. It’s a culinary vegetable with a carbohydrate secret.
Why Your Low-Carb Friend Hates It
One cup of cubed butternut squash has about 16 grams of carbs. That’s more than a cup of broccoli (6 grams) but less than a cup of mashed potatoes (37 grams). It’s a middle child of the produce world—not too rebellious, not too boring.
Here’s the kicker: those carbs come with fiber (about 3 grams per cup) and a ton of vitamin A. So your body doesn’t freak out like it does with white bread. It’s like a carb that apologizes for being carb-ish. Sweet, right?