Don’t be intimidated by those weird and wonderful winter squash! Fanciful shapes, stripes, bumps, and warts, these gorgeous vegetables are as tasty as they are pretty. If your only winter squash experience is pumpkin pie, it’s time to try something new.
13 Winter Squashes to Cook and Enjoy
There are many varieties of winter squash available that are versatile, healthy, and delicious. The next time you are out shopping for a pumpkin, keep an eye out for one of these yummy varieties of winter squash.
Butternut Squash
If you’re new to squash and unsure where to start, I would recommend beginning with butternut squash. It’s my go-to! Butternut squash is very easy to peel and cut, and it tastes absolutely delicious.
Butternut squash is versatile and doesn’t taste overly sweet. Most markets have butternut available year-round, making it a great starter squash for those new to cooking with this winter vegetable. Although it has a lighter texture and flavor when cooked, butternut squash can be used in place of sweet potatoes in recipes.
See more on how to cook with butternut squash.
Sugar Pumpkin
Have you noticed that those giant pumpkins sold during Halloween lack any substantial flesh? That’s because they were bred to be carved and not eaten. Instead, sugar pumpkins are small, have thick, flesh-packed walls and have a distinctive “pumpkin” flavour.
If you want to skip the canned pumpkin for your baking and make your own purée, then a sugar pumpkin is the squash for you.
To prepare these pumpkins, you’ll want to cut them in half and then scoop out the seeds. Don’t forget to roast the seeds (like these highly addictive pumpkin seeds).
Once cleaned, put it in a baking tray with the cut side facing up. In the baking tray, add about an inch of water. Leave the pumpkin in the oven until you can piece the flesh with a fork, and it feels nice and soft.
Let it cool, and then scoop out the pulp from the inside. And voila! You’ve made yourself some puree to make pies, scones, muffins, creme brulee, or other desserts.
Spaghetti Squash
For low-carb lovers, spaghetti squash comes in a close second to zucchini as their favourite versatile vegetable. Its flesh is tender and chewy, with a fragile texture and mild flavour.
The squash gets its name from the spaghetti-like strands of the flesh when cooked. Unlike other winter squash varieties, spaghetti squash is not sweet. The “strands” make a perfect low-carb replacement for pasta.
To get the “spaghetti,” cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. Roast the squash cut-side up in a pan with an inch of water. When cooked, the flesh will be shredded with a fork into strands that look like spaghetti noodles. Season and serve with your favourite pasta sauce.
Acorn Squash
This is another squash that is readily available in grocery stores year-round. The skin is typically dark green, with a bit of orange peeking through. The flesh is orange and has a nutty, sweet flavour. This skin of the acorn squash is edible and makes a great vessel to serve soups and dips.
When shopping, look for acorn squash that doesn’t have deep ribs, as the rounder the squash, the easier it is to peel.
I use a heavy-duty vegetable peeler to remove the skin. Even though you can technically eat it, it doesn’t taste that good while cooking.
Cut between the ribs and then use the peeler to clean up the edges. Once you have these sections of squash, it’s very easy to cut acorn squash into half moons or in chunks. I cut mine up into as close to squares as possible.
Next, I put the squash in a roasting pan and cover it with salt, pepper, and olive oil. When it’s tender and ready to come out, I drizzle it with a balsamic reduction. This makes for such an excellent side dish!
Sometimes, I also serve it this way alongside butternut squash. Together, they make a nice salad because you get a different density with the butternut squash. An acorn squash density is somewhere in between a summer and a winter squash. It has a lot more water content.
Try this Acorn Squash with Coconut Chickpea Stuffing Recipe.
Sweet Dumpling Squash
How can you not love something called “Sweet Dumpling”? This darling squash is small and compact. The flesh tastes like sweet potatoes, and you can even eat the skin. It is perfect for use as an edible bowl for soups and stews.
To cook it, you can cut and prepare it the same way as you would the acorn squash.
Carnival Squash
The carnival squash is the offspring of an acorn and a sweet dumpling squash. It resembles both parents in shape, and its yellow flesh is mellow and sweet. In recipes, substitute this squash for acorn squash or butternut squash.
Carnival squash can be cooked the same way as the acorn squash or butternut squash, just maybe without the balsamic reduction. They’re a really nice pumpkin to stuff!
Delicata Squash
Also known as the sweet potato squash, Delicata has a creamy flesh with a mild flavour similar to sweet potatoes. The skin is edible, which makes this squash a cinch to prepare: cut it in half, remove the seeds, and roast away!
The delicata squash is very dense, which is what makes it great for stuffing and baking.
To cook them, cut them in half lengthwise to create a little boat and scoop out the seeds. Roast on a pan with an inch of water.
To season them, I like to drizzle them with olive oil, a little bit of brown sugar, butter, and some salt. They taste so sweet and savory when you cook them this way!
Kabocha Squash
Kabocha is an Asian variety of winter squash known for its squat green appearance and rich orange flesh. It’s used widely in Japan and Korea and is often referred to as a Japanese Pumpkin (“kabocha” is the Japanese word for “pumpkin”).
Its texture is similar to that of a chestnut and tastes like a cross between a pumpkin and a sweet potato. In Japan, the Kabocha is used in tempura, stewed, and in desserts. Kabocha can be roasted or steamed and used the same way as other hard winter squashes, such as butternut or pumpkins.
Red Kabocha is similar to its green counterpart in shape, but it is reddish orange with sweeter flesh. Red Kabocha is excellent for use in desserts and curries
Another variety that is similar that I cook with is the Red Kuri squash (more on that one below!). I use both the red kuri and kabocha squashes for making curries, soups, and stews since they hold their form. Unlike other squash, they won’t turn mushy when you put them in cooking. So you get a really delicious texture and flavour.
Buttercup Squash
Buttercup looks like a miniature version of Kabocha squash. It has a sweet, creamy flavour and is considered the sweetest of all winter squash.
The flesh tends to be on the dry side, so roasting is not recommended. Instead, steam or bake to use in soups and curries.
Cook it following the same instructions as the sugar pumpkin. Once you cook them, you scoop out the flesh, and it’s going to be more mushy and puree-like. This makes the consistency good for baking or making soups with, anything that won’t stay together.
Blue Hubbard Squash
This is one of the largest varieties of winter squash. Its exterior is firm and can range in colour from deep green to gray or blue. Blue Hubbard’s flesh is a deep orange with a sweet pumpkin flavour. Hubbards are a great choice for baking. You can use this squash for soups or pies.
To prepare this squash, you will also want to steam it. Follow the same instructions as the sugar pumpkins, scooping out the flesh once cooked.
Red Kuri Squash
This cute little squash is bright orange with a rich, buttery flesh and savoury flavour. The skin is edible on the Red Kuri, which will bring a fun, seasonal colour to your dish. This squash is perfect for braising, roasting, and baking.
When cooking the Red Kuri squash really holds together. For this reason, it’s great for adding chunks into curry, soup, stew, and as tempura. One of my favourite dishes is Thai red curry with pumpkin. You can customize it by adding beef, pork, or chicken to it as well.
It’s made in a nice red curry sauce and then with pieces of red kuri (said the same, but spelled differently!).
The skin will be orange with a green line showing a second skin with denser flesh on the inside. The trick is to cook it until it’s quite tender, and then it will absorb the flavour of the soups or stews it’s in. You really need to cook it so it won’t be crunchy, but the plus is that the squash won’t turn to mush.
Cinderella Pumpkin
This fun pumpkin may have gotten Cinderella to the ball, but it’s so much more than a magical transport vehicle. Cinderella pumpkin’s rich, thick flesh is moist and custard-like, with a sweet flavour that surpasses almost any other pumpkin you can get.
You can use it in any winter squash recipe, but if you get your hands on one, make pie. It makes the most delicious pumpkin pie you will ever taste.
Turks Turban Squash
A heirloom squash, people love this wacky squash for its interesting shape and mixture of colours. I find it to be really beautiful and interesting.
To prepare the Turks squash, you first cut off the “cap.” This can be quite difficult, so make sure the person doing so is skilled with a very sharp knife. Alternatively, use a paring knife if you don’t feel as confident.
Then, you prepare the top and bottom. Scoop out the seeds and roast them in a pan with some water. Once the flesh is fork tender, scoop out the flesh. But leave a little behind on the edges!
When I made this squash, I mixed it with cooked rice, roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, salt, and parmesan cheese. When mixed together, it made a really nice pumpkin pilaf.
The best part…I put it back in the squash skin as a bowl! While the bowl is very thin, it becomes hard. You can knock it and see that it holds together as a bowl. To serve it, I scooped the pumpkin pilaf inside and put the little cap on top. It was an absolutely delicious meal, and I highly recommend it.
More Pumpkins Please!
