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I made soup again the other night. I know I said I was sick of soup, but it sounded better than anything else I could think of. Anyway, the good news is it’s delicious and it gave me an excuse to try a new squash-peeling method.

On to the tip: Butternut squash is great to eat, but it’s a pain to prepare because it’s so hard to cut. Diane had had a hard time halving the things and told me about microwaving them first to soften the shell. I figured it might work for peeling, too.

Hence, I washed a 2-pound butternut, pierced the skin in a few places, and put it in the microwave for three minutes. When I took it out, liquid was oozing a bit from the holes I poked, and the squash was a little warm, but I could pick it up bare-handed.

Next, I lopped off the top and bottom, set it upright on a cutting board and peeled it with a chef’s knife, paring from top to bottom.

It was remarkably easy. Maybe not quite in the peel-a-carrot category, but much easier than previous attempts. You can see in the photo that moisture beaded up on the flesh where I peeled it, but that didn’t seem to harm the texture.

Only after I peeled the butternut did I halve it, seed it and cut it into 1-inch dice for the soup. Net result: soup prep time also halved.