Roasted Salmon and Butternut Squash with Herb Crumble

This Roasted Salmon and Butternut Squash with Herb Crumble is the best of sheet pan cooking! It’s a perfect recipe for a quick dinner that you can feel good about. Fork tender salmon with roasted butternut squash tossed with fresh spinach and topped with an herb crumble full of dates, almonds, olives, and more. Delish!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I love a good sheet pan recipe. That is to say, I love the act of roasting simple ingredients and then finding all of the different ways to level them up.

This recipe is a great example of that.

Let’s make it together!

Recipe Ingredients

You’ll need the following ingredients to make this sheet pan salmon and butternut squash recipe:

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

The ingredients to make this easy-baked salmon and squash are easy to find and readily available at grocery stores. If you can, I highly recommend grabbing anything you can at your local farmer’s market for the best flavors.

Here are a few ingredient notes:

Salmon: Use wild salmon or farmed salmon, whichever you prefer, as either will work in this recipe. When choosing fresh fish, it should be moist, firm to the touch, and should not smell. The salmon filets can have skin on or not.

Butternut squash: Butternut squash is the base of this dish and is full of fiber and vitamins. Try to buy one that is medium in size, and you won’t find it so cumbersome to deal with. Prepping butternut squash feels daunting at first, but with the right heavy-duty peeler and a good chef’s knife, you won’t give it a second thought! Substitute with delicata, acorn, honeynut squash, or sweet potatoes.

Spinach: Spinach not only adds a lovely pop of green to this sheet pan, but it also adds another vegetable full of flavor. Almost any leafy green can be substituted here – chopped kale, swiss chard, arugula, or any other similar green.

Miso: Providing a salty, umami flavor to the salmon, this fermented soybean paste is a secret weapon in the kitchen! Use white or red miso in this recipe.

Yogurt: The yogurt in this recipe lends a cooling, smooth, and contrasting flavor. It’s flavored with a pinch of salt and enough fresh orange juice that it has the texture of heavy cream. I used Greek yogurt, but you can also substitute regular plain yogurt.

Olives: Olives provide such a key flavor and amazing texture in this herb crumble. The buttery, salty, and briny flavor works so well with the sweet dates, orange zest, and fresh herbs. Use green castelvetrano olives if you can, but kalamata olives would make a good substitute.

Dates: Dried Medjool dates are the star of this crumble. The nutty sweetness and delicious flavor that they provide is unrivaled. Substitute golden or regular raisins, dried apricots, or dried unsweetened cranberries if you do not have dates.

Almonds: A supporting role in this crumble, nuts provide a fantastic crunch that is a great contrast to the soft salmon and squash. I used almonds, but you can substitute pistachios, pecans, or walnuts to great effect.

Fresh herbs: Fresh herbs are key to this dish, as the bright green flavor is the perfect offset to the mellow roasted flavors of everything else. Use parsley and mint if you can, or substitute with cilantro, chives or green onion.

Garlic: Use only fresh garlic in this recipe (no garlic powder and nothing from a jar) for the correct flavor.

Let’s Make Roasted Salmon with Butternut Squash and Herb Crumble Together: STEP BY STEP

Steps 1, 2 & 3:

First, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and marinate the salmon by mixing the miso, soy sauce, and brown sugar and brushing it onto the salmon.

Second, trim the ends of the butternut squash, peel it, cut it in half lengthwise, and then in half again, crosswise. And third, using a spoon, remove the seeds.

Steps 4, 5 & 6:

Next, place each piece of squash, cut side down, and slice into 1/4-inch thick slices. Toss those squash pieces, in a single layer, onto a sheet pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the herb crumble by combining the parsley, mint, garlic, olives, orange zest, dates, almonds, chili flakes, and salt.

Steps 7, 8 & 9:

Set aside the herb crumble, mix the yogurt and orange juice, and set aside.

Remove the squash from the oven (some pieces should be starting to turn golden brown at the edges), add the salmon to the sheet pan, and return to the oven for 8 minutes. When the salmon is done, remove the sheet pan from the oven and transfer the salmon to a plate so you can mix the fresh spinach with the squash.

Steps 10 & 11:

Finally, return the salmon to the sheet pan, drizzle everything with the yogurt sauce, and then top with the herb crumble.

Serving Suggestions

• Add a side of my favorite Roasted Brussels Sprouts to this and you’ve got the perfect autumn meal.
• Serve some high-quality crust bread, or even garlic bread, on the side.
• A simple bright and crisp green salad would be a nice complement to this recipe.
• Serve a seasonal soup ahead of time, like this Easy Pumpkin Soup or this Creamy Mushroom Soup.

Storage & Reheating

STORAGE: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Additionally, if you have any leftover yogurt drizzle or herb crumble, store those separately in the fridge for up to a week, also in airtight containers.

REHEATING: To reheat in the oven, place everything in an oven-proof pan or dish and cover with aluminum foil. Place in a 375-degree oven until warmed through, and then drizzle with yogurt. and top with the crumble. You can also reheat everything in the microwave in 30-second intervals until everything is warmed through.

FREEZING: This dish freezes well in an airtight container for up to 6 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating

Recipe Card

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