11 Winter Squash To Get Acquainted With At The Grocery Store

Winter squash comes into fashion in October and hangs around until at least April. It is cheap, filling, and tasty ... if you know what you're doing. Unfortunately, most people are familiar with butternut and maybe acorn squash, but not much else. The thing is, beyond them and the humble pumpkin, tons of varieties routinely show up at the grocer. Knowing how to prep and cook this category of produce can majorly add to your health and enjoyment.

However, not everyone finds this type of produce particularly intuitive. If you're confused about how to make acorn squash interesting, cook spaghetti squash correctly, or combine butternut squash with spicy ingredients for a great soup, you're not alone. This guide will instruct you in the mysterious ways of winter squash by taking a tour through 11 of the most popular varieties. Grab your shopping list, your pen, and your bib ... and let's get started.

"Winter squash" is an all-purpose term that represents several species within the genus Cucurbita, specifically cultivars of Cucurbita moschata, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita pepo, all of which are members of the Cucurbitaceae family. They are members of the same family as summer squash (think zucchini) but are allowed to mature on the vine long enough to become hard and easy to store.

Both winter and summer squash are indigenous to the Americas, where they were cultivated as far back as 10,000 years ago. Interestingly, squashes are the only members of the Cucurbitaceae family that are thought to be native to North, Central, and South America. They have relatives around the world, such as melons (native to Asia) and cucumbers (native to India).

Equally interesting is the fact that winter squash will interbreed within species, but not species to species, as one might think given their similarities. So for instance, you could breed a butternut and a cheese squash, as they are both C. moschata species, but you could not cross a butternut with a hubbard squash, which is a C. maxima species.

While related to thin-skinned summer squash such as zucchini, yellow squash, and patty-pan squash, winter squash varieties are a different breed, made to last. They have hard skin, firm flesh, well-developed seeds, and a long shelf life. They stay on the vine longer than summer squash do. Although you plant pumpkins and zucchini at the same time, for instance, you harvest the former months later than the latter.

Winter squash shares several characteristics with summer squash, though. They are vining fruits, filled with seeds, and can be planted either in starter pots indoors or directly in the ground outdoors when the soil has warmed. Compared to the summer squashes, however, they have a significantly lower water content, which helps them last, as well as sweeter flesh. Their seeds are also larger and tougher to eat, meaning you have to remove them and either toss them or, if you're up for a bit of work, wash them clean and roast them.

Generally acorn-shaped (hence the name), with dark greenish-black skin and light yellow to orange flesh, acorn squash is sweet, tender, and ideal for multiple uses. Its distinct ridge pattern is fairly unique among winter squash, which makes it an eye-catching addition to a seasonal table.

Because it's so adorable when halved and cooked, it is a common choice for stuffing with ingredients such as wild rice and walnuts. Follow the recipe when stuffing acorn squash, as you sometimes cook them ahead of time and then fill them, but other times cook the squash and filling at the same time. If you like, you can eat the skin of some acorn squash, as it is very thin.

If you find it difficult to cut into acorn squash neatly (as is needed, for instance, when you want to cut it into two bowls for stuffing), then there's a neat trick you can use. Pierce the flesh in several places with a sharp knife. Microwave for five minutes or so, then let it cool. You'll find it much easier to cut in half now. Just make sure to cut those slits, or you'll be cleaning Acorn Squash à la Explosion out of your microwave.

Along with acorn squash, butternut is one of the most common varieties you'll find in a grocery store. Its light tan skin and oblong shape, with a wide, globe-shaped end, give it away (and make it stand out from its cutie cousin, the honeynut). Butternut is one of the creamiest varieties, blending into a puree that is nearly as buttery as butter itself. That makes it a great option for soups, baby food purees, and even smoothies.

It is especially glorious in roasted butternut squash soup, which is so easy to make by sauteeing onions and apples in a butter or olive oil base, then adding squash and cooking in broth until soft, usually about a half hour on simmer. Once done, all you have to do is puree it, season it to taste, and perhaps add a squeeze of citrus for extra flavor.

If you're going to peel butternut squash before cooking it, which is the only way to get nice cubes, make sure you're using a heavy-duty vegetable peeler. This will ensure you get all the fibrous skin off, which is completely unchewable, and it's sharp enough that it's less likely to slip, which could lead to injury.

It's not called spaghetti squash for a reason. This delicious member of the winter squash crew has light-yellow flesh that can be easily shredded into strands that are roughly the size and consistency of spaghetti noodles. Sure, you're never going to *actually* think it's real pasta. But with fewer carbs and more fiber, they're a perfect accompaniment to Bolognese and cheese if you want to save on calories and up your nutrients. You can make a healthy one-bowl meal quite easily by baking the squash in the oven before shredding and topping.

If you're not up to the task of buying and baking your own spaghetti squash, then here's some good news: You don't have to. You can now buy organic dried spaghetti squash online. It has zero additives and is easily cooked just like regular noodles, so it's the perfect way to add a little healthy food to the family dinner table.

Ever seen those hulking squashes at pumpkin patches or out front of the grocery store, the ones that came in blue and gray colors and look like they were grown by a very cheerful witch? That's most likely Hubbard squash, and they are delicious. Plus, they hit that perfect mix of decorative and delicious, so you can cheer up your hearth with them for a few weeks before slicing and tossing them into the oven. (Pro tip: They come in orange as well, so you can get a full decoration scheme going just with Hubbard varieties.)

Hubbard is one of the best winter squashes to cook up and serve as a side on its own, due to its dry, dense flesh. Similar in flavor to a sweet potato, it holds its shape well on a dinner plate, but it also blends into soup nicely. If you're looking for a substitute for pumpkin or sweet potato, you can make a nice pie out of it as well.

Small, torpedo-shaped, and beautiful, delicata squash truly live up to their name: so tender that even the skin is edible. This puts them among the most undemanding winter squashes because you can dispense with a tough peel that requires removal before or after cooking. They make a wonderful side dish when sliced and dressed, as well as a nice main course when halved and stuffed with meat or wild rice. (Or, and you will likely get tired of hearing this before you get to the bottom, they're great with butter and salt. Because ALL winter squash is great with butter and salt, full stop.)

Delicata is a happy garden plant. As long as you give it plenty of water and the right soil, ideally amended with nutrient-rich compost, it will grow happily and produce a bumper crop of squash, even in a container. This is a great one to try for balcony gardeners because you can see good results in a limited space, especially since delicata seeds are pretty cheap online.

Also known as West Indian pumpkin, Cuban squash, calabasa, and green pumpkin, calabaza does indeed look like a green pumpkin. Hailing from tropical regions, it is sweet and a bit nutty, similar to butternut and acorn squash in flavor. Sometimes you can't find it in northern grocery stores since it's mostly popular in Central and South America, along with the Caribbean.

Calabaza is a handy squash to have around. Not only does it have a unique look for those who like winter squash as a decorative piece, but it can also easily be subbed in for butternut or acorn squash, which sometimes run out over the holidays. It's also wonderful baked with oil, salt, and pepper, and eaten on its own. Like all of the other winter squash varieties, it's pretty darn cheap, so it makes for an inexpensive and filling carb at dinnertime.

If you need to be told what a pumpkin is, who even are you? Kidding; you've obviously heard of pumpkin ... though in America, that's more often in the context of Halloween, jack-o-lanterns, or pies than it is in the context of a main meal or savory dish. However, pumpkin makes for a great soup, and cubes of roasted flesh are delicious in salad.

While all pumpkins are technically edible (because all winter squash are), some of them are definitely yummier than others. And if you want originality, you'll never run out of options, like the unique 19^th century cultivar known as the Long Island cheese pumpkin.

Pumpkin is pretty easy to cook up. Believe it or not, you don't need to peel the skin before you boil or steam it. Instead, just remove the stem and the pulp, cut the pumpkin into pieces small enough to put in your pot of choice, and cook until both the flesh and the skin are soft. It helps to have a nice big stainless steel crock pot for this.

This writer's mother-in-law has a wonderful way with kabocha squash, so it's a more familiar sight in our house than it might otherwise be. Kabocha is big, spotted green, and witchy-looking. Its bright orange flesh is sweet, earthy, and nutty, a perfect candidate for serving plain with butter or creaming with cheese and rebaking.

If you want to take a straight-shooting approach to kabocha, then the best thing to do is simply cut it in half, turn it upside down on a lightly greased cookie sheet, and bake it at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until you can easily slide a knife through the skin and into the flesh. Take it out, let it cool a little, then cut it into slices and serve skin-side-down on plates, encouraging people to add butter (or, if you like, fake butter) and salt before it cools. Just ... yum.

If you're worried about getting squash goo (the caramelized juices that come out and bake into a sugary brown layer) on your pan, you can use parchment paper sheets cut to the size of your pan. If you prefer reusable products, try a non-stick silicone baking mat. (The ones in this house have been going strong for 10 years, so it's worth the investment.)

While it might sound like a close relative of butternut squash, buttercup is actually quite different. Yes, they are both winter squash varieties but their appearance and uses diverge considerably. While butternut squash is moist enough to eat scooped straight out after being roasted, buttercup is better when made into a soup or casserole, as it has drier flesh. Adding the moisture of broth or fat really takes its delicate flavor to the next level without requiring that you endure a papery dining experience.

Buttercup squash looks a lot like its cousin kabocha, especially when it's in its green stage, before it ripens to orange. If you're ever confused between the two, you can look at the bottom, where buttercup has a distinctive round "button" and kabocha does not. As kabocha is a better bet for eating alone, because it has a nice meaty flesh, you really do want to know the difference.

First bred in the 1980s by crossing a butternut and buttercup squash, honeynut is like a smaller, sweeter version of butternut. Its short, squat frame and slightly tanner skin make a cute addition to your countertop or pantry, and its creamy flesh is meltingly sweet and decadent served with a variety of flavors. Like butternut, it is also delicious paired simply with butter and salt.

If you're looking to roast the squash on its own, you can cut it in half and bake it with a marinade of olive oil, vinegar, maple syrup, and cinnamon. More interested in soup? Make it just the same as you would a butternut squash soup. Bake it while you saute apples and onions, then scoop out the flesh and simmer in broth until it's all completely soft and blendable.

For extra flavor and veggie power, you can also add peeled sweet potatoes and skin-on carrots (the skin contains many of the carrot's best nutrients) to your broth base and simmer them along with the butternut squash flesh, but you might need to extend the time a bit more.

As with many of the other squash varieties, sweet dumpling's name is indicative of its flavor. Mild and sweet, it becomes even tastier when you roast it. It has a long history of cultivation in Central America, a testament to its ancient reputation as a delicious veggie. Like other winter squash brethren, it has a lovely skin pattern (white with greenish stripes that turn orange as the squash ripens) compared with a nice, soft flesh that cooks up nicely.

Sweet dumpling squash are lovely roasted with a touch of sweetness. You can cook them much as you would any other winter squash: cut into wedges and roast in the oven, top with butter and salt either before or after ... and so on and so forth. You can also roast pretty much any winter squash whole, so long as it fits in your oven. Once it's soft, you can cut it up and serve.

Winter squash can be used in many ways, depending on the variety. While you could technically make a nice enough soup out of any variety, the best for this are creamier varieties, such as butternut and pumpkin. Sweet and light varieties, such as acorn and delicata, are best for baking and eating simply with butter and seasonings. Spaghetti squash is, as the name implies, a great substitute for noodles. That said, every variety on this list is good baked up and served with butter (though pumpkin is, frankly, a bit boring and better saved for sweet treats like custard, bars, and pie)

If you're feeling uncreative or want help getting more squash into your life, you could always try a cookbook dedicated to the subject. Yes, they exist. Think Squash: 50 Tried and True Recipes by Julia Rutland or The Squash & Pumpkin Cookbook: Gourd-geous Recipes to Celebrate these Versatile Vegetables by Heather Thomas (which seems like a valuable addition to your cookbook roster for no better reason than the puns alone).

There's a reason winter squash plays such a big role in decorations for Spooky Season and harvest celebrations. They're unique to the time of year and are sometimes strikingly beautiful, with golds and oranges and pale greens, variegated patterns, and knobby, bumpy, witchy textures.

However, there's another reason they're so suited: They last a really long time. Even at room temperature, winter squash stays good for a month or more. If you put it in a root cellar (which usually has an average temperature between 32 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit), you can keep it for months at a time, sometimes all the way until spring. Just make sure the cellar doesn't get any colder than that, or your produce will freeze, which will destroy the structural integrity of the flesh. Ideally, you should store winter squash varieties such as butternut between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Storing winter squash in the fridge is relatively simple. After cooking, it will keep for three to five days, depending on how it's prepared. You can also mash cooked squash flesh and put it in the freezer for up to a year.

Winter squash is quite healthy, in addition to being delicious. Because it is enjoyable to eat (if you add fat, salt, and seasonings, anyway), it makes a nice addition to the dinner table throughout the colder months as a substitute for old carb standbys such as bread, potatoes, and rice. It also has tons of vitamins, nutrients, and fiber. Think beta carotene, lutein, vitamin C, vitamin B6, magnesium, potassium, and zeaxanthin. (Because we all need more zeaxanthin in our lives, probably?)

It's also very low-calorie considering how filling it is. You can have an entire cup of squash for only 76 calories, which leaves you plenty of wiggle room for butter, margarine, ghee, olive oil, or your adornments of choice. Considering how low it is in cholesterol, sodium, and fat, you could eat winter squash pretty much every night of your life and be the better for it.