Winter Squash Guide: Butternut, Delicata & Honeynut | America’s Test Kitchen
Never guess about a winter squash again. Jack Bishop shares the ultimate guide to choosing, prepping, and cooking butternut, honeynut, and delicata and spaghetti squash. Jack shares which squashes belong in soups, which shine when roasted, and how to safely cut through tough-skinned varieties without risking a slip.
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Peeling Butternut Squash:
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My favorite is acorn squash in half roasted with lots of cinnamon and some brown sugar
I dont peel any squash, it has a great flavor
He looks like the love child of David Brenner and Buck Owens
I cut them with either a big serrated knife or an electric carving knife.
Spaghetti squash is king. You gatekeeping us over how to serve it? Too jestery. Bordering on treason.
Roast or bake with a lot of butter and brown sugar.
We just put up 4 BU of buttercup squash. I'm in my 70's and remember how they tasted years ago. I was a bit disappointed with the flavor of the variety we bought.
I’m taking issue with what you say about the Hubbard. What you have there on the table, imho, is not a Hubbard, which is a gigantic squash. That one is what they’re calling a ‘Baby Blue.’ It is very hard to find a Hubbard —because they’re so big they don’t sell well. But take half a Baby Blue Hubbard like the one on your table, a butternut and a small pie pumpkin and you have the holy trinity of a divine squash soup!
Why peel before cooking? Cook and then remove the peel when you are done.
Would a meat tenderizer work in place of a mallet?
Yes! Smother it with spaghetti sauce! So much spaghetti squash. So much spaghetti sauce!!!
Nice
Great idea and great start but we really need to see more info on all of these and the appropriate recipes
I love Caribbean style pumpkin-chickpea and spinach curry. They don’t use the orange pumpkin despite the name. Which squash variety would be best for that?
As for spaghetti squash, I love it roasted in olive oil and then tossed with a bit of salt, pepper, pesto sauce , some fresh parsley, crushed roasted pistachio and Parmesan cheese.
Fill each half of an Acorn with very mild ground sausage, rice, & spinach then cover with swiss cheese.
A winter squash that is often overlooked by big market chains is sweet meat squash. Picked at their peak they are spectacular!
Honey nut is the king of Squash. peel, cube, sautee with a good butter until soft inside and crispy around the edges, then some real Maple syrup maybe some Nutmeg towards the end so you don't burn the sugars…Yum! A very sweet treat you can feel good about serving your family. I make it as a side but it eats like desert.
Hubbard squash is my fav by far.
Put the squash in the oven for 15 minutes, then it will be soft enough to cut safely.
In Spain, spaghetti squash is made into a pie filling by roasting, then adding honey and lemon zest and juice. It’s called angel hair (cabello de angel). Easy and keeps well.
I love making soup with Kabocha squash. It also is sold where I live as Red Kuri and Hokkaido in Europe. It makes a wonderful creamy soup and I add pumpkin seed and roasted pumpkin oil on top. Yum!
Thanks ATK, as always. I had a gifted green kabocha and steamed it whole in my IP. Super simple. S&P, a bit of butter. Divine mash that played well with mayocoba beans, potatoes, corn, pickled Brussels sprouts, and chicken legs. Delicious feast on a budget. 🌟
I'm not a fan of spaghetti squash smothered in sauce. I love it when allowed to shine on its own…I'll try with some burst cherry tomatoes and a light vinaigrette, tho.
Thank you! I love all of those! Definitely, the taste of autumn! What a range of uses!
Great cooking info. Though he called a spaghetti squash a vegetable, but it is a fruit.
Kinda odd to slam the knife halfway into the squash and then just move on… would be much more helpful to show us how to get the knife all the way through without damaging it.
Thanks, Jack!
Great timing…I'm looking at a butternut (that's looking back!). Thx.
A mallet? I think I’ll stick to a dish towel for grip rather than adding something else that can injure you!
The heck is so wrong with using spaghetti squash like spaghetti??? It's great!
I use butternut to make pumpkin pie. Delish!
Red Kuri and Delicata are my favorites.
I adore kabocha. A stuffed whole kabocha squash is a lovely-looking as well as a tasty dish to serve at a group dinner or potluck.
Wonderful and informative video
What about red kuri?
I grew up eating roasted acorn squash with lots of butter, salt, and pepper. It's the only way I know how to cook it, but that's OK because I love it that way.
The Delicata, and Sweet Dumpling, are very hard, the mallet method may be necessary.
I grew cushaw and Candy roaster this last summer. Got one of the cushaw (it was a beast so one was all I needed!) and 3 of the candy roasters; they were baked, mashed and put in the freezer for pies.
Bad advice on spaghetti squash. I don’t do marinara sauce, but I do use a garlic butter sauce on it and it is fantastic.
What about pink banana squash? It makes a fabulous creamed curry soup.