Whether we're roasting it, shaving it into a salad, grilling it, or stuffing it with rice and sausage, we love squash!
This tasty vegetable is filling, delicious, and full of vitamins and minerals. There are a lot of different types of squash out there, including summer and winter varities. What's the difference between the two you ask? It has to do with the rind—and storage.
"Summer squash is harvested in the warm weather months and doesn’t store for long," says Josh Kirschenbaum, vegetable account manager at PanAmerican Seed. "Winter squash is harvested in the fall and has a hard rind, which allows it to keep well for months."
Here are some of our favorite squash varieties with growing tips and a few recipe ideas:
Types of Winter Squash
Winter squash need tons of room to grow because their vines sprawl between 10 to 15 feet in every direction; train the plants up a trellis or fence to conserve space. Harvest winter squash when the rind can’t be pierced with your thumbnail, about the time when the vines and leaves wither or after the first light frost.
Acorn
Shaped like its namesake, but with ridged edges, these popular winter squash are dark green often with bright orange or yellow spots. These heavy feeders like a lot of fertilizer over the growing season. They’re great baked or stuffed because they're not as sweet as other types. When baked or roasted the skin of acorn squash is edible and excellent in a salad.
Types of Acorn Squash: Honey Bear, Jester
Buttercup
These turban-shaped squash store well into late winter and are buttery-sweet and satiny when baked and mashed. Bake then puree, discarding the skin, with olive oil and Romano cheese for a side or delectable sauce for pasta.
Types of Buttercup Squash: Burgess, Bonbon
Butternut
Butternuts are cylindrical with a bulb-shaped end and a classic, tan rind. They are prolific producers and after harvesting will need a few weeks of storage for the flavor to develop, but they last for months and months. The skin of butternut squash is edible if you roast it, but if you are adding it to a soup or mashing it it's best to peel it first. For a quick appetizer try it mashed on crostini with goat cheese and fried sage.
Types of Butternut Squash: Honeybaby, Waltham
Honeynut
Cross-bred from butternut and buttercup squash, the relatively new Honeynut squash looks very similar to butternut, but is smaller, sweeter, and a little more tender — though it doesn't store as well. Use it like you would butternut. For an easy side dish, halve and roast filled with butter and herbs, and finish with chopped nuts.
Delicata
This heirloom variety has creamy yellow and green-striped oblong fruits that are about three inches wide and six inches long. They don't store well like other winter squash so eat them within a month or so. Delicata squash are tender and taste a little like sweet potatoes. The rind is edible and makes an excellent side dish when roasted with grapes.
Types of Delicata Squash: Bush Delicata
Dumpling
These cute little winter squash (they are typically the size of a grapefruit) are prolific producers and have a squat shape, deep ridges, and a recessed top. Eat the skin and sweet flesh either baked, grilled, steamed, or stuffed.
Types of Dumpling Squash: Sweet Dumpling, Carnival
Hubbard
These squash, popular in New England, have a tough, bumpy rind and range in color from bright orange to a gorgeous aqua-blue color. Some varieties weigh up to 15 pounds each! Breaking into one of these can be quite a feat but it's well worth the effort for it's rich and sweet flesh (discard the hard skin). Roast wedges of the flesh with olive oil and smoked paprika or cook cubes in stews.
Types of Hubbard Squash: Red Kuri, Blue Ballet
Kabocha
These Japanese squash are similar in appearance to a buttercup but without the bump on the top. The flavor is reminiscent of sweet potatoes. Bake or steam and toss with miso and butter or purée in soups.
Types of Kabocha Squash: Sunshine, Hokkori
Pumpkin
Pumpkins actually are a type of winter squash. While you can eat any variety most are not particularly tasty, and are grown primarily for carving or display. If you want to make a from scratch pumpkin pie then be sure to choose a sugar pumpkin sometime called a pie pumpkin! Bake, steam, put in stews, and of course roast the seeds!
Types of Pumpkin Squash: Baby Pam, New England Pie, Cindarella
Spaghetti
Spaghetti squash plants can grow quite large so grown them somewhere with lots of space or even on a trellis. These oblong-shaped squash have stringy flesh you can scrape out after cooking to create spaghetti-like strands. Uses as a healthy low-carb pasta substitute it's excellent tossed with red sauce and turkey meatballs.
Types of Spaghetti Squash: Sugaretti, Tivoli
Cushaw Squash
Cushaw squash, also called silver seed, is originally from Mexico, where it's prized both for the fruit and for its seeds. Cushaw typically have a thick neck with yellow flesh, much like a butternut, though more fibrous.
Types of Cushaw Squash: Orange-striped, green-striped, campeche
Fig-leaf Gourd
Curcubita ficifolia, known variously as chilacayote, black seed squash, or Asian pumpkin is native to South America, where it is grown and prized for its edible fruit and seeds. The long-storing squash has a hard white and green rind, and white flesh with black seeds. Because the fruit is sweet, it's often used to make desserts or sweets, such as jam.
Banana Squash
Closely related to Hubbard, kabocha, turban, and pumpkin, banana squash is so named for its distinctive long shape and striking colors. Like many winter squash it's delicious roasted or stewed. It's large enough to feed several people at once.
Types of Banana Squash: pink, blue, jumbo, rainbow
Boston Marrow
Like a bright-orange Hubbard squash, these large, bumpy, often misshapen squash can get quite large—getting to 15 pounds or more. They're originally from Massachusetts and, while hard to find in stores, are still grown and prized for their superior flavor, and fiber-free fruit.
Calabaza
In Spanish, "Calabaza" simply means "squash." But in English, it refers to the Curcubita moschata, or West Indian pumpkin, a large, pale, yellow food squash, like a kabocha but larger, that is grown in tropical climates such as the West Indies, Philippines, Florida, and Puerto Rico. It's used regularly in all these cuisines in everything from soups to cakes, and the seeds are especially delicious.
Types of Summer Squash
Summer squash often grow on a bushier plant than the more vine-like plants of winter squash, meaning they'll take up less room in your garden. “Less” is relative as most still need three to four feet of space in every direction to grow. Pick summer squash when small and tender—the bigger fruits tend to become tough, woody, and full of seeds. And keep picking to keep the harvest going!
Zucchini
This familiar summer squash, which comes in both green and yellow varieties, has been grown for generations because it's easy to grow and produces high-yields. Grill or saute and toss over pasta, or bake it into quick breads or use it in a savory galette. If you grow too many to use in your zucchini recipes, after gifting some to your neighbors, grate it (a food processor will make quick work of it) and freeze in ziptop bags. When you are ready to make a frittata or zucchini bread, pull it out to thaw, squeeze it dry, and get cooking.
Types of Zucchini: Bossa Nova, Easy Pick Green, Cocozelle, Gold Rush
Round Zucchini
These cute round zucchini are good for the same types of dishes as the long varieties, but they're fun to roast or grill whole when they're small - serve with chimichurri and steak for a great summer dinner! Or harvest them when they are larger and stuff with rice, meat, and veggies.
Types of Round Zucchini: Eight Ball, Papaya Pear
Crookneck
With rounded bottoms and curved necks, to guarantee ultimate tenderness, these squash are best picked when no more than 4 to 6 inches long. If you wait too long, they get unpleasantly seedy. The skins are slightly thicker then zucchini so they hold up beautifully in a squash casserole.
Types of Crookneck Squash: Yellow Crookneck, Gold Star
Patty Pan
These flying saucer-shaped summer squash are similar to zucchini but are slightly sweeter and tend to hold together better when cooked. They can be grilled whole when they are no more 2 to 3 inches wide. For larger fruits, dice and sauté as a side dish or toss over pasta.
Types of Patty Pan Squash: Benning’s Green Tint, Sunburst
Chayote
You often find the green, pear-shaped squash in Mexican or Latin-American grocery stores. Chayote is also popular throughout Asia and among some island nations. Cook it just as you would zucchini, or try sautéing in butter and garlic, then topping with Parmesan for a tasty side dish.
Other Names: mirliton, choko
Gem Squash
A dark green summer squash about the size of a tennis ball, these popular South African fruit are often boiled or baked. Unlike most other summer squash, the skin can be quite thick, and only the flesh is eaten. They're also called Rolette
Tatume
These heat-tolerant heirlooms are fast growers. The vine can reach up to 10 feet long, so don't plant one unless you have a big gardens! Firm, sweet white flesh has more flavor than many other kinds of summer squash. Pick when fruits are softball-sized. Fry them up with a little onion and garlic and eat in a quesadilla or taco.
Tromboncino
How cool are these? The slender, curvy fruits of this Italian heirloom are firm and less seedy than many types. Make sure you have a large garden because their vines reach up to 15-feet long! Harvest fruits when they are no more than a foot long. Try chopping and roasting them with tomatoes, garlic, and herbs to eat on crispy toast.
