15 Types of Squash and How to Cook Them
Pumpkins may steal the show at Halloween, but many other types of squash can add a splash of color to your cold-weather meals. Sweeter and firmer than zucchini and other summer squash, autumn and winter varieties work well in various dishes from soups and stews to salads, casseroles, and desserts (think: maple butternut cake).
Though the varieties below are often grouped into a category of “winter squash,” the name is somewhat misleading. Harvested in the fall, these hardy fruits (yes, they are technically fruits) store well through the cold winter months. Acorn squash and butternut squash are usually the most available at local supermarkets, but newer varieties like honeynut are appearing in many shops, and delicata has become much easier to find in recent years. Look for less common varieties such as buttercup, red kuri, and the eye-catching turban squash at your local farmers market.
How to pick a good squash
Choose squash that are firm, free of blemishes and soft spots, and have an intact stem. Don’t be intimidated by a squash’s weight and tough exterior; they should feel heavy for their size. When working with a larger one, start by making a shallow cut to create a flat surface so that it’s stable on your cutting board. And be sure to scoop out the seeds, which can be roasted for a snack.
Do you have to peel squash?
Not all squash varieties need their skin removed. Delicata and honeynut, for example, have thin skins that add pleasant texture when roasted, while others are technically edible but are better peeled. If you’re short on time, choose popular varieties like butternut, which are often sold peeled, pre-cut, and ready to cook.
How to store squash
Uncut squash can last for several weeks to months in a cool, dry place. However, the storage time varies depending on the variety, so it’s best to use them within a few weeks. If you notice soft spots developing, use the squash immediately and cut away any blemishes.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy1/15Acorn Squash
This mildly flavored squash is named for its acornlike shape and can be found in most grocery stores across the United States. There are several subvarieties, including white acorns, gold acorns with yellow or orange skin, and carnival acorns, which have an exterior that resembles a Jackson Pollock canvas in vibrant shades of green, orange, and yellow. The most common acorn squash are those with dark green skins. Regardless of skin color, the flesh of a ripe and ready acorn squash is golden orange and surrounds a dense pocket of seeds.
Firm and ridged, acorn squash can be tricky to break down, so be careful with your initial cut. The easiest way to prepare one is to slice it in half, use a spoon or ice cream scoop to remove the seeds, and roast the halves with maple syrup and butter as a side dish, like Ina Garten does. You can also roast the halves with olive oil and then stuff them with rice pilaf as a vegetarian main dish. If you cut acorn squash across and roast the rings or half moons, they make a nice presentation in a winter salad with radicchio and feta. Acorn squash’s skin is edible, high in fiber, and adds a pop of color to the plate.
Photo by Shutterstock2/15Buttercup Squash
Compact and green with paler green striations, the buttercup closely resembles kabocha squash, which it can stand in for. Its distinctive base bears a circular ridge that gives it away. On some, the ridge may encircle a more prominent bump, or “turban.”
Some describe the flesh of a freshly cut buttercup squash as smelling like a crisp, fragrant cucumber. The cooked flesh, however, is often described as tasting similar to a chestnut, with a dense, dry texture. Because of its bulbous shape and mild flavor, it’s easy to stuff with various fillings—try it with pearl barley and spices.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy3/15Butternut Squash
One of the most readily available squashes on this list, butternut squash is easy to find at almost any American grocery store. Its slim neck and bulbous bottom give it a distinctive bell shape. The thin, muted yellow-tan rind hides bright orange, relatively sweet flesh. White seeds, similar to those found in a Halloween or field pumpkin, are located at the core of the rounded end, while the longer tubular part is solid.
To make butternut squash easier to handle, cut the neck off the body and work with each section separately. Place the flat side directly on a cutting board for stability. You can also use a sharp vegetable peeler to remove the peel—while it’s technically edible, many find the papery skin unpleasant. If you're cooking butternut squash in smaller pieces, we recommend peeling it first, but if you're roasting it in halves or quarters, leave the skin on and scoop out the tender flesh afterward. You could even roast the squash whole, unpeeled, then peel and tear it into pieces once soft and sear it in a pan for a bit of caramelization.
Butternut squash’s mildly sweet and earthy flavor profile makes it versatile. It can be puréed into a velvety and lightly sweet squash soup, roasted in cubes for a salad, used in a creamy squash risotto, or baked into a maple sheet-pan cake.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy4/15Carnival Squash
Cross an acorn squash with a sweet dumpling squash, and you get a carnival squash. This good-time diva has a petite bulbous shape with ridges like its parents and does some serious peacocking with a skin that’s green, orange, and light yellow. Its flesh is mellow, sweet, and some say it has a maple-like flavor.
You can use this colorful squash whenever a recipe calls for acorn or butternut squash—it can be stuffed, roasted, or stripped of its skin and puréed.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy5/15Cheese Pumpkin
Alternate names: Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
These large pumpkins look almost fairytale-like—yet somehow also resemble big wheels of cheese, which is how they got their name. They have pale skins and a bulbous shape with indented ridges running up their sides. Their flesh is mildly sweet.
Cheese pumpkins are perfect for large dinner parties or holidays like Thanksgiving, where they can serve as a serving vessel for soup or melted cheese. Their flesh can also be roasted and puréed for pie, like in our kabocha pie with seedy streusel.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy6/15Delicata Squash
Alternate names: sweet potato squash, bohemian squash
With its pale yellow skin flecked with green and orange marks and elongated shape, Delicata squash closely resembles its summer squash cousins, but its arrival at the farmers market often signals the beginning of fall. The tender squash is more vulnerable to bruises and rot than sturdier squash varieties, so handle them with care. To remove its seeds, slice the squash in half at the equator, then use a melon baller or butter knife to scrape out the long, thin channels that run along its length.
When roasted, the thin skin is edible and crisps up nicely, and its yellow flesh develops a texture similar to a russet potato. The flavor is slightly earthy and sweet, reminiscent of corn. For a decorative effect, take advantage of this squash's ridges by slicing width-wise to create scalloped circles or halves; small- to medium-size delicata work best. Cooked delicata holds its shape well, so you can toss it into a green or grain salad without worrying about it falling apart.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy7/15Honeynut Squash
This petite squash resembles butternut squash, only it’s smaller and has darker skin. It burst onto the produce scene in recent years and rightfully grabbed lots of attention from cooks. Cornell plant breeder Michael Mazourek focused foremost on taste when developing the variety, assisted by chef Dan Barber. Honeynut has a deeply sweet almost caramel-y flavor that’s more concentrated than butternut squash with thin, tender skin and richly hued orange flesh. This squash is flavorful enough on its own—roasted with olive oil, salt, and pepper—but you can also use its sweetness to balance flavors like bitter radicchio and nutty tahini.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy8/15Hubbard Squash
There are several subvarieties of hubbard squash, including blue hubbards with their blue-green skin, orange or golden ones, red kuri (see below), and green hubbards. The latter was introduced to the American public in the 1840s and 1850s, according to The Compleat Squash. Some have a teardrop shape, while others are more oblong, like a football. In general, their flesh is starchier and drier than other squash varieties, similar to that of a sweet potato, with a nutty, sweet flavor that intensifies when hubbards are roasted.
Several specimens in the hubbard family weigh between 10 and 20 pounds, so save them for large batch cooking or pawn large hunks off to friends. Their natural starch makes them ideal for sauces, curries, and soups as it helps transform their cooked flesh into a rich, creamy purée.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy9/15Kabocha Squash
Alternate names: Japanese pumpkin, kent pumpkin
Squat kabocha (Japanese for squash) has a nutty, savory flavor with a hint of sweetness. You’ll find it in shades of deep green with paler striations and vibrant orange-red with faint white stripes running from top to bottom. While the creamy orange flesh of red kabocha is notably sweeter, the two are relatively interchangeable.
Cutting into a kabocha requires a large knife and a good amount of leverage (a rocking motion can also help). It’s best to cut it in half to create a flat surface. From there, you can slice it into wedges or cubes (if this intimidates you, you can sometimes find it sliced into large chunks at Japanese and East Asian grocers). Kabocha is able to play many different roles. It can be fried for tempura, gently steamed, puréed for a squash pie filling, and even tossed into a stir-fry.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy10/15Koginut squash
Like honeynut squash above, this petite squash with ridges on its side was developed by Michael Mazourek, and its seeds are available through chef Dan Barber’s company Row 7. It’s a relatively new variety, which you’ll most likely find at a farmers market, though some Whole Foods stores have been known to carry them in season.
Prized for its velvety texture and nutty flavor, koginut squash is excellent when roasted—either halved or sliced—or steamed. Its peel is edible and provides a nice contrast in texture to the tender flesh.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy11/15Red Kuri
Alternate name: Hokkaido squash, kuri squash
Red kuri is a type of Hubbard squash, but you'll often see it called for by name in recipes. In Japanese, kuri means chestnut, which hints at the squash’s creamy, nutty flavor.
Look for its vibrant dark orange skin, which may have faint stripes running from tip to tip of its teardrop shape. Use it in place of acorn squash in any recipe or dice it up to add to a vegetable stew.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy12/15Spaghetti Squash
Alternate names: vegetable spaghetti, noodle squash
Scrape the inside of a cooked spaghetti squash, and you’ll see how this variety got its name. Dragging a fork across its roasted flesh transforms into "strings” that closely resemble noodles.
An uncooked spaghetti squash, however, can be quite hard and challenging to cut into.
To make it easier, cookbook author Anna Stockwell suggests pricking the skin of a whole squash with a fork several times before microwaving it for 5 minutes. This will soften the squash, making it easier to cut in half. From there, she advises removing the seeds and baking the squash halves flesh-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet with just a little kosher salt and no oil to cook off as much moisture as possible. This method helps the pasta-like strands separate more easily.
Unlike many other squashes on this list, spaghetti squash is mainly recommended for one purpose: as a substitute for spaghetti. So, if you’re looking for a more nutritious pasta or noodle alternative, this very mild-tasting squash is a good option.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy13/15Sugar Pumpkin
Alternate name: pie pumpkin
If your Halloween jack-o'-lantern was small with relatively shallow ridges, it was likely a sugar pumpkin. These are valued for their classic, sweet pumpkin flavor and their thick, flesh-filled walls. If you're making pumpkin purée for pies and holiday baking, you can use a sugar pumpkin, but remember it will take a while for the liquid to cook out and for the purée to become as thick as canned pumpkin. You can also candy wedges of sugar pumpkins to make the Turkish sweet kabak tatlısı.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy14/15Sweet Dumpling Squash
Alternate name: vegetable gourd
This whitish-yellow squash features green and orange striping that might remind you of delicata or carnival squash. It’s compact and has a bulbous shape—the perfect size to turn into a bowl for an individual serving.
The flesh of sweet dumpling squash tastes like sweet potato, and its skin is edible. Use it in any recipe that calls for sweet potato or pumpkin. They are especially good when stuffed and baked.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy15/15Turban Squash
Alternate names: Turk’s turban, French turban, turban squash, turbanet
These heirloom squashes resemble two items stacked one on top of the other. The base is more disk-shaped, while the top is smaller and rounder—looking like a large, squat muffin. The skin of a turban squash can appear almost tie-dye with greens, oranges, and creams, and their interior is a soft orange that is lightly sweet and nutty in flavor. They are best stored on their side to prevent bruising in one spot.
Roast them in chunks with oil, salt, and pepper, or stuff them as in Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for Pumpkin With Everything Good. And don’t rule out using them as part of a tablescape before cooking.
A version of this story was first printed on Epicurious as early as October 2015. It has since been updated by Epicurious editors .
