This quick and easy yellow squash recipe is packed full of flavor and comes together with very little work. Infinitely customizable, healthy, and goes with just about everything!
I don’t know about you, but I love just about every dish the contains the word stir-fry.
Even more, I LOVE dishes that use up veggies that are in my refrigerator. And I always have peppers and onions sitting in my refrigerator. Actually, I think I’m a little obsessed with peppers and onions. But that’s a different story.
This recipe sprung from a creation of my mom’s. I don’t even quite remember what it was now, but it had garden-grown stir-fried yellow squash in it and that was the beginning of the love affair.
I would 1000% recommend finding a farmer’s market near you to see about buying some smaller fresh squash.
But if you don’t have a farmer’s market (or time/energy to go to one), never fear. This recipe holds its own!
Without further ado, I hope you enjoy this easy yellow squash recipe. The printable recipe card can be found below.
How to make summer squash stir-fry
Get the onion started
Assuming you’ve gathered all your ingredients, your first step is going to be preparing and starting the onions.
Peel the onion and dice it into large pieces – about 1 inch. You can go smaller but they tend to disappear into the stir fry.
Using 1 tsp of olive oil (or your preferred fat), soften them on medium/low. They can continue to soften while you get the other veggies ready.
Prep your other veggies
Let’s start with the squash. You’ll trim the ends and peel the yellow out skin off using a peeler or knife.
Once they’re peeled, cut the skinnier end off into thicker slices. You’ll go down until you start seeing seeds.
At this point, slice the squash in half long-ways and use a spoon to scrape out the seeds.
**You can always leave them in, but I find that they’re too mushy for my liking and tend to aggravate my migraines.
Once the squash are hollowed, dice them into large chunks (again about an inch).
After the squash are ready to go in the pan, put them to the side. We’ll move on to the peppers next.
Cut the top off the pepper. Remove seeds and as much of the innards as you’d like.
Dice the peppers into large chunks (about an inch).
Throw it all together
By now, your onions should be nicely soft and translucent.
Throw (or place nicely, your choice) the remaining vegetables into the pan with the onions.
At this point, you’ve got a decision to make. You can use butter or a different fat of your choice. I’ve tried it with butter and olive oil and it’s amazing either way. If you have dairy issues or prefer to avoid it for whatever reason, I’d opt for olive or avocado oil.
Either way, you’re going to add the fat to the vegetables, as well as your seasonings.
Give it a good stir and turn your stove up to higher medium.
Stir about every 5 minutes. Stirring too often will result in mushy vegetables.
Cook to your heart’s content. We prefer our vegetables super soft and a little ‘roasted’ (browned).
Customization Options
As I said earlier, this is super easy to customize. Here are a few options for you, but play around and see what you like!
- Throw a can of corn in here. If you go this route, you’ll want to put it in with the onions in the beginning. It’s truly amazing this way and was my go-to before I changed up my diet.
- Add zucchini. Treat it the same as the squash and add it at the same time.
- Add 1 tsp of parsley and 1/2 tsp of thyme for an herby-er (that’s completely a word) flavor.
- Add 1 tsp of cumin and 1/2 tsp of chili powder for a bit of a ‘fiesta’ twist. This goes really well with chicken tacos, btw.
Dietary Considerations
Because the base of this recipe is vegetables, it fits most diets. One could even argue it’s Keto, but you’d want to monitor your portion size.
- The one substitution you’ll want to make for a paleo/vegan-friendly recipe is for the butter. Use 1 tbsp of your preferred fat instead of the butter.
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