Recipes  

7 Winter Squash Varieties To Try This Season

With their various shapes, colours and flavours, winter squashes are a versatile ingredient when cooking during the colder season. From the spaghetti-like strands of spaghetti squash to the nutty sweetness of butternut squash, you’ll want to cook (and bake!) with each of the seven varieties featured here.

1. Acorn squash

Acorn squash is small and ribbed, with green skin and an orange-yellow flesh that tastes sweet. It’s ideal for roasting and mashing, but also the perfect squash to serve stuffed, like in this recipe with quinoa and cheddar.

2. Butternut squash

Butternut squash is one of the more popular squashes in this list, with its familiar pear shape and smooth, tan skin. Its orange flesh has a nutty flavour, and it’s great in a variety of recipes both sweet and savoury. It tastes fantastic roasted, in a risotto and especially in soup!

3. Delicata squash

This squash is one you maybe haven’t heard of before! It has an oblong shape with green and cream-coloured stripes, and a delicately thin skin that doesn’t need to be removed. Its yellow flesh has a subtle sweetness, making it a wonderful squash that can be roasted, like in this Turkish-style egg dish.

4. Hubbard squash

The large and bulbous Hubbard squash has a tough green exterior, and a dense orange flesh inside. It’s a great winter squash to roast and purée, which can then be used in a cake batter, such as in this recipe.

5. Spaghetti squash

Yellow and oval shaped, spaghetti squash’s flesh is unique because when roasted, it separates into strands that look like–you guessed it–spaghetti. It therefore makes a suitable low-carb alternative to pasta and tastes great with sauce.

6. Buttercup squash

Small and squat, this dark green squash is ideal for roasting and mashing. But its round shape and thick skin also make it perfect for hollowing out so that it can become a vessel for soup, stew or, in this case, corn chowder! As you dig in, you’ll likely scoop up some of the sweet flesh too, which provides even more flavour.

7. Pumpkin

Fall’s most famous squash isn’t only good for decorating your doorstep on Halloween! When you dig inside its orange shell you’ll find an earthy yet sweet flesh that can be turned into a purée and then used in a myriad of desserts, from a loaf to these tasty turnovers. (And, yes, the seeds make a great snack too!)

Want to learn how to peel and seed squash? Be sure to read this article: