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These lightly seasoned pan-fried butternut tots will satisfy all your tot cravings, with a bonus velvety sweetness you get only from fall butternut squash.
Looking at my post lineup for the coming weeks, it appears I've gotten a bit excitedabout fall. I'm sure by January I'll be sick as heck of winter squash and root veggies, but for now I'm all about it.
Butternut squash is something I'd gladly eat all year, and I totally could. If you've been reading for a while, you might remember I went a little crazy with the butternut squash recipes last fall, blaming a coworker of my husband's who repeatedly offloaded his home-grown butternut squash on us.
When that happened I decided growing butternut squash was just about the coolest thing a person could do, so I saved the seeds from a couple of last year's harvest...and they're still sitting in an envelope in my kitchen drawer. It's okay. I turned out to be a really bad vegetable gardener, so my home grown butternut squash probably wouldn't have been that great anyway.
Fortunately, butternut is everywhere. And it's cheap. And the squashes are often huge. And I live in a two-person household. All this means that every time I purchase one, you get a bunch of recipes out of it, and believe me, I'll be loading up on butternut squash.
It seems like everyone's getting down with tots lately. I've seen recipes for tots floating all over the web, and have been slobbering over these in particular for a few weeks now. If summer squash makes a good tot, I had to imagine butternut would as well.
Eat these and you get the satisfaction of classic tots, with that wonderful butternut sweetness. I flavored my tots up with some smoked paprika, but was tempted to try a half-dozen other things, curry powder, cinnamon, and hot chili powder among them. I'm sure they'd all be good, and feel free to try whatever you're feeling. The spicy maple mustard is a must if you go with my smoked paprika tots.
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4.5 from 2 votes
Butternut Tots with Spicy Maple Mustard
These lightly seasoned pan-fried butternut tots will satisfy all your tot cravings, with a bonus velvety sweetness you get only from fall butternut squash.
CourseSide, Snack
CuisineAmerican
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 4
Calories 276 kcal
Author Alissa
Ingredients
For the Butternut Tots
- 1lb.butternut squashabout ½ of a medium squash, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1-2tbsp.olive oildivided
- ½medium onionquartered
- 1garlic cloveminced
- ¾cuppanko breadcrumbs
- ¼cupchickpea flour
- ½tbsp.smoked paprika
- ¼tsp.saltplus extra for sprinkling
- ¼tsp.black pepper
For the Spicy Maple Mustard
- ¼cupyellow mustard
- 2tbsp.maple syrup
- 2-3tsp.srirachaor to taste
Instructions
Make the Butternut Tots
Preheat the oven to 400°.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Toss the butternut squash cubes with ½ tablespoon of olive oil and arrange them in an even layer on baking sheet.
Bake until piercable with a fork, but still pretty firm, 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.
Place the butternut squash into food processor bowl with the onion, garlic, panko, chickpea flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Pulse until ingredients are well blended, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
Roll the mixture into tot-shaped cylinders.
Coat a large nonstick skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and place over medium heat.
Working in batches if needed, arrange tots in an even layer in skillet. Cook until browned on bottoms, about 4 minutes. Flip and cook until browned on opposite sides, about 4 minutes more.
Make the Spicy Maple Mustard
Remove from heat and sprinkle with salt, if desired.
Stir all ingredients together in small bowl.
Nutrition Facts
Butternut Tots with Spicy Maple Mustard
Amount Per Serving
Calories 276Calories from Fat 84
% Daily Value*
Fat 9.3g14%
Saturated Fat 1g5%
Sodium 364mg15%
Potassium 641mg18%
Carbohydrates 43.6g15%
Fiber 7.3g29%
Sugar 11.5g13%
Protein 7.9g16%
Calcium 100mg10%
Iron 3.1mg17%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
« Falafel Spiced Skillet Chickpea Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
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Reader Interactions
Comments
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche saysGenius! I've never had tater tots (they're not really a thing over here, though our hash browns look similar, just triangular!), but I KNOW I would love them - and a butternut version sounds even tastier :)
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- Alissa Saenz says
Tater tots are pretty much just little cylindrical-shaped hash browns. If you like butternut squash I'm sure you'll dig these. :)
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- Kristen says
These look amazing! I wonder if you know—would a gluten-free breadcrumb work ok?
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- Alissa Saenz says
Thank you! I think a gluten free breadcrumb would work. I don't have a whole lot of experience with gluten free breadcrumbs, but I've had readers let me know that gluten free breadcrumbs worked for them in recipes that use a similar mixture/technique, like veggie burgers and veggie meatballs. :)
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- Sheila Sadler says
Hi can i just mention that i have made these with one cup of chick pea flour and cut out the breadcrumbs, they are delicious, i have also baked them in the oven, this makes a healthier version.
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- Elizabeth, Plant Based Bride says
Wow! These look amazing! I'm definitely going to try these with my fiancé. Thanks for the awesome recipe :)
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- Sheetal says
These look delicious! Do you have a baked version?
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- Alissa Saenz says
Thank you! I actually tried working a baked version before coming up with this version, and I wasn't really happy with how they came out. If I remember correctly they got a bit dried out and didn't brown as nicely.
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- Jennifer says
would coconut flour work?
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- Alissa Saenz says
I'm not sure. I haven't tried these with anything but chickpea flour, and lots of times non-wheat flours behave differently in recipes like this. It might take a bit of trial and error.
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- Sarah g says
I make these pretty much weekly now, they might be my favorite Pinterest recipe that I've found! Not that I couldn't figure it out on my own.. But do you know the nutritional value of these? (Wondering if me eating these so often actually has many health benefits over fries/regular tots)
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- Alissa Saenz says
Awesome! Glad you're enjoying them! I don't have the nutrition info for these - it would really depend on how much oil you end up using. Calorie Count is my favorite calculator when I do check the nutrition info though. :)
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- Amanda says
Do you think I could make, sauté, and freeze these and then thaw and bake for Thanksgiving? Thanks!
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- Alissa Saenz says
I haven't tried it, but I think that would work. Please let me know how it works out if you do. :)
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- Mary says
This was a disaster! Just turned to squash purée in the blender. I'd hand mash if I tried again.
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- Alissa Saenz says
Sorry to hear that! I wouldn't recommend using a blender for this dish though.
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- Laura says
I would recommend letting the squash cool almost to room temp before trying to mix. I have a small processor and the first batch turned pretty mushy from the warm squash. I made mine into flat nugget like shapes to make them easier to flip in the pan. Also, for people who do not have a scale for the squash I think it is about 3 cups?
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- Alissa Saenz says
Thanks for the tips! And yup, about 2 to 3 cups should be right.
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- heather says
Has anyone tried these with coconut/almond flours? If so, did they turn out?
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- Rebecca says
Flavor is excellent, but I had a bit of a trial making these. I tried to make them gluten free by substituting ground rice cakes for the panko. I don't know if that was the problem or if I had too much squash or what, but they came out way too mushy to do much with. I also found I had to cook the squash until it was really mushy in order to get it to blend right in the food processor. I ended up adding a bunch of flour (sorry to my sis who is the GF one) and then they kinda fried up ok, but still rather mushy. 2 hours later and tired, I had an appetizer that tasted good but looked like a great "failed it" example.Reply
