On The Side #9 | Winter Squash

How to make the not so tasty ones taste good

Oct 19, 2024

∙ Paid

Just like everyone else with a camera phone, a social media account and a Substack newsletter, I have been busily making the most of winter squash season. You can, for example, find squash-centred recipes of mine over at MOB, and on Instagram.

In my defence, I’m not a new convert — the clue is in my internet and blog moniker chosen back in 2009. And I do absolutely love this time of year, both produce and weather wise. Yet the whole pumpkin patch, pumpkin spice, winter squash aesthetic that washes over our screens around now is beginning to bug me.

Largely because I have a feeling that, in reality, many people prefer looking and taking pictures of most squash, to cooking and eating them … Must everything be ‘for the ‘gram’?

In truth, of the twenty or so varieties in the picture above, I personally only really enjoy the flavour of *gets closer to the screen and squints a bit* two of them: Kabocha (the famed Delica is a type of these) and Onion (also known as Red Kuri, Hokkaido or Potimarron).

There’s also the Violino, a variety I recently stumbled across, which I would describe as the wisened, gnarly and warty cousin of Butternut. You can just about make it out towards the bottom of this box o’squash. Once cut in half, the insides are the purest of orange, the flavour just as vivid and spellbinding.

With Delica, Onion and Violino it’s easy: when cooked simply they’re sweet but not saccharine, and nutty in a chestnut puree kind of way.

By ‘simply cooked’, I mean baked or roasted, seasoned generously with salt, perhaps lightly embellished with the likes of garlic, rosemary, sage, chilli flakes and/or maple syrup. But rarely much more than that. Unless you’re making it the centre of a meal, in which case, as mentioned already, try the orzo or bean dish here.

You might also mash or purée these squash to great effect. Although I’d still roast them first (rather than, say, boil): by doing so, you (a) reduce the water content, thus intensifying the flavour; and (b) caramelise and encourage Maillard reaction browning, thus increasing the sweetness and potential for umami savouriness too. Ideal.

I’ve a few ideas for embellishing roast wedges of squash in my book On The Side, also a ratio for squash:butter:liquid to make a lush purée. And in Crave there’s agrodolce squash and radicchio. Which I love.

But that’s all by the by. Because the point I wanted to make through this column is that there are at least 18 other types of squash and pumpkin in the pictures above that don’t fit a ‘just roast them, they’re lush’ instruction.

Which is absolutely not to say that Spaghetti, Acorn, Hubbard, Turban, Harlequin, Delicata, Munchkin, Ghost and the multiple unnamed ‘mixed squash’ or ‘generic visually amusing pumpkin’ are not worth buying and cooking. Far from it. We owe it to our stomachs to ensure they’re not merely players in decorative gourd season, motherf****rs. (hint: click, read and enjoy that link.)

Don’t just take a picture and walk on by. Buy them. Cook them. Because with a little help, they’ll become excellent side dish material: for rich meaty ragus, slow beef braises, shoulder of lamb, lamb chops, venison stews, roast mushrooms, creamed mushrooms, lentils and beans, things involving reduced and intense tomato-based sauces … you get the idea.

THE SQUASH SPECIFIC ONE

The Best Way to Cook and Season Spaghetti Squash

THE STARBUCKS ONE

Pumpkin Spice, Maple Syrup and Brown Butter Baked Acorn Squash

THE ADAPTABLE ONE FOR SQUASH THAT LOOK INTERESTING BUT DON’T TASTE OF MUCH

Winter Squash with Chimichurri and Red Kidney Beans

(Made here with Crown Prince, but you could sub in any other pretty but low-on-flavour squash)

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