Each year around fall, a sweep of different colors and flavors flood through grocery store halls. Summer fruits like mango, watermelon and strawberries become more scarce, making way for delicious bounds of squash to take their place. Fall spices like nutmeg, pumpkin and cinnamon are displayed out front and combined with additional seasonal ingredients ready to turn into your favorite seasonal recipe. And until the weather warms up, fall herbs and hearty vegetables like squash will continue to dominate grocery store shelves.With it officially being squash season, you may be wondering how you can use this nutritious veggie to make a flavorful and filling meal. If that's the case, you've landed on the perfect article. Throughout this guide, we'll discuss various squash varieties and how you can cook them to perfection to make a classic fall dish your guest will rave about. Classic favorites like squash soup, spaghetti squash pasta, and roasted butternut squash are just a few of the many squash recipes you'll be prepared to bake after completing this crash course in squash cooking.While squash may seem a bit confusing from the outside, it's a veggie that's extremely simple to cook. Once you become more familiar with this superfood, you'll be able to cook it with confidence and have fun while doing it! Continue reading to learn more about squash and how you can incorporate it into your weekly menu.
Nutritional Benefits of Fall Squash
Before we dive straight into learning how to cook squash, it's important to talk more about squash and what it is. A vegetable native to North America, squash is a healthy and flavorful whole food with cultivation techniques dating back as early as 7,000 BC in Mexico. However, once European explorers arrived in the Americas, squash became a well-known stable in nearly every American culture. Before electricity and refrigeration, squash became popular in households across the world since it can be stored and preserved easily in a cool and dry location, some of which can stay fresh for up to six months.
What Does Squash Look Like?
As you may have noticed, squash comes with impressively thick skin. And for a good reasonit's used to protect the inside (edible) parts of the squash from harmful environmental stressors. When it comes to the skin of the squash, most of it is not to be eaten. However, underneath the thick outside layers is a nutritious inner layer loaded with essential vitamins and nutrients that make up a healthy diet.So, what kind of vitamins are inside a squash? Nearly every variety of this vegetable is a high source of plant-derived vitamin A. This is incredibly important, and this vitamin must be received from plants and is not absorbed through animal products. Squash is also packed with vitamins C and B6 and has lesser amounts of other vitamins, including calcium. While the exact amount of each vitamin varies depending on the variety of squash, no matter what squash you choose to enjoy, you can be confident you're eating something nutritious.Following an elimination-based diet? No problem, winter squash is suitable for nearly every kind of diet. Low carbohydrates, goitrogens, histamines, FODMAP and entirely vegan, squash can be easily worked into some of the most strict eating plans. Plus, its sweet and savory taste makes this vegetable one that both kids and adults will love. Because squash is a low allergy food, it's one of the most flavorful and safe dishes to bring to fall gatherings, ensuring that everyone can enjoy your delicious meal.
The Many Different Varieties of Squash and How to Cook Them
While all fall and winter squash are technically the same vegetable, they come in many different varieties. To better understand how to use each type of squash, we've outlined a few of our favorites below. Learning squash basics will help you better identify which squash you might already have in your kitchen or one you'd like to purchase from the grocery store.
Acorn Squash
What It Looks Like:
Acorn squash is a vegetable shaped similarly to an acorn (hence the name) and is a medium-sized squash smaller than a watermelon but larger than a potato. Acorn squash comes in several different colors, including green, orange, white and a speckled mixture of all three. It has deep ridges in its side and is one of the more savory squash types.
What It Tastes Like:
Acorn squash is nutty in flavor. In fact, it's one of the nuttiest squash varieties there is. Perfect for making savory meals, acorn squash can serve as a meat replacement in your favorite lasagna or prepared as a flavorful side dish to accompany a more sweet main.
How to Cook It:
The easiest way to cook acorn squash is to bake it. Before baking your acorn squash, season it with either sweet or savory ingredients. Once cooked, all that's left to do is eat it!
Buttercup squash is similar to a pumpkin in shape. However, it's a bit more squashed looking. The squash exterior is bumpy and knobby, and the skin is often a dark green color that sometimes features lighter green streaks.
What It Tastes Like:
In comparison to acorn squash, buttercup squash is sweet, however not as sweet as its cousin the butternut squash. It holds a semi-sweet and savory flavor that blends well with a variety of different cuisines. It's also a bit drier than other types of squash.
How to Cook It:
To cook buttercup squash, you must peel the skin first before baking. After the squash has been peeled, cut it into cube-like shapes and roast it. This will ensure that your squash cooks evenly.
Butternut Squash
What It Looks Like:
The close cousin of buttercup squash, butternut squash is pale in color and often longer than it is wide.
What It Taste Like:
Buttercup squash is extremely sweet compared to other winter squash varieties. Its texture is both creamy and smooth, and it features a pleasant flavor that both adults and children enjoy.
How to Cook It:
Like a buttercup squash, the simplest way to cook butternut squash is by peeling, cubing and roasting it.
Delicata squash is similar in shape and size to a cucumber. It is yellow and has green vertical stripes running down the sides of it.
What It Taste Like:
Compared to other squash varieties, delicata squash has an extremely mild flavor, somewhat comparable to spaghetti squash. Unlike many other squashes, both the skin and flesh of delicata squash is edible.
How to Cook It:
The edible skin of delicata squash makes it much easier to cook as it doesn't need to be peeled before baking. Simply chop your delicata squash into bite-sized pieces and roast it until it is tender.
Pumpkin
What It Looks Like:
Pumpkins are undoubtedly the most popular squash around. A favorite squash in the fall, pumpkins are used for much more than cooking. They are used as decoration, carving objects and even help to spice up a room's smell. While carving jack-o-lanterns is an enjoyable experience, it's far from our favorite way to enjoy this flavorful veggie.When choosing a pumpkin to eat, you'll want to steer clear of those that you would typically carve. Carving pumpkins don't often make the best-tasting pie. Instead, look for the smaller pumpkins that are commonly sold as a pie pumpkin. Or, if your store doesn't have any pie pumpkins available, you can use canned pumpkin in your favorite recipes to achieve the same results. Unlike many other canned foods, pumpkins retain much of their nutritional value.
What It Tastes Like:
Without added sugar, pumpkin and pumpkin pure is actually quite savory and can be transformed into a number of different dishes.
How to Cook It:
The easiest way to cook a pumpkin is to bake it. Before baking your pumpkin, you'll want to cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds and stringy bits. After the inside has been scraped, the pumpkin is ready to bake.
When it comes to cooking squash, the most common way is to roast it. Nearly every variety of squash can be cooked this way. To cook squash properly, be sure to follow these simple steps.
Begin by cutting the squash open and removing the seeds.
Next, decide how you'd like to cut your squash. You can either slice the squash into large pieces or cut it into smaller cubes. How you prepare your squash will likely depend on which recipe you'll be cooking.
After slicing your squash, you'll want to season your squash using spices, oils and additional food ingredients.
Once fully seasoned, roast the squash until it becomes tender and can easily be poked with a fork.
Finally, combine your cooked squash with a wide array of ingredients to make a delicious appetizer or main course.
Once you've fully mastered how to roast your squash, you can begin to try new and creative ways to cook your squash. Stuffing it, blending cooked squash into soups, or turning it into fries are different ways to work squash into your weekly meal planning.Whichever squash you decided to cook, and however you choose to cook it, it's sure to be a favorite amongst your fall ingredients. By following these simple steps on how to prepare squash, you can add flavor to your favorite fall recipes or create a new masterpiece effortlessly.
