 The word squash aptly describes this vegetable’s cooked texture, but it doesn’t hint at its sweetness. A good winter squash packs a wallop of flavor. Winter squashes have dark yellow to orange flesh and a thick rind. The sweetest squashes are generally those with the most deeply colored flesh.
Health Benefits: Compared to summer squash, winter squash is a better source of natural sugars, carbohydrates, and beta carotene. It provides vitamins A and C, potassium, iron, riboflavin, and magnesium and is low in sodium.
Use: Squash can be baked, stuffed, simmered in a little water, steamed or fried – but boiling in water to cover leaves it flavorless. Pureed, it makes a sweet soup or pie, a sensational spread for waffles or toast, or raw it may be grated and added to cookies, puddings, and cakes.
Buying: Select squash that is heavy for its size with a hard rind with mottled markings. The rind should be free of soft spots, cracks, and bore holes.
 Shaped like a deeply ribbed acorn, this winter squash is a longtime American favorite. Newer varieties are super sweet; the heirloom varieties are mildly sweet.
Compared to a buttercup or butternut squash, the acorn flesh is pale yellow rather than orange, dryer, less dense, and somewhat stringy. For beautiful flower shapes, slice this squash crosswise into thin rounds.
 The longest keeper in the squash family, organic butternut squash is reminiscent of a peanut in shape and color (thus its name), although it is actually more bell shaped. Its sweet, orange flesh is similar to the buttercup squash.
Because a butternut's skin is thinner and lighter in color than other winter squash, it can be cooked and pureed with the skin intact. This saves preparation time and increases nutritional value.
This variety is very popular because it's so easy to use. It's small enough to serve a normal family without leftovers, and the rind is thin enough to peel off with a vegetable peeler. As an added bonus, the flavor is sweet, moist, and pleasantly nutty.
 A long oblong-shaped squash with a cream colored, green striped thick outer skin and a golden fine-textured inner flesh. Considered as a novelty squash, its size may range from 5 to 10 inches in length with an average weight of 1 to 2 pounds. This squash can be baked or steamed and served as a side dish seasoned with butter and herbs, providing a sweet nutty flavor with a creamy smooth texture. It is also known as potato squash, a sweet potato squash or a Bohemian squash.
 Spaghetti squash has a round or oval yellow shell. The yellow- to cream-colored flesh inside comes out in strands, giving the squash its name.
 Kabocha squash is a strong contender for the ultimate sweet. It’s satisfyingly rich, almost nutty, and never cloying like chocolate or sugar. Kabocha skin is either slate green or a loud orange-red. Its flesh is mustard yellow and its texture is similar to buttercup squash but its drier, flaky (if over baked), and never stringy. Delicious baked, sautéed, in a soup, with grains, beans, or vegetables, or in a pie.
 The extra-hard skins make them one of the best keeping winter squashes. These are very large and irregularly shaped, with a skin that is quite "warted" and irregular. They range from big to enormous, have a blue/gray skin, and taper at the ends. Like all winter squash, they have an inedible skin, large, fully developed seeds that must be scooped out, and a dense flesh. They are generally peeled and boiled, cut up and roasted, or cut small and steamed or sautéed. It's perfect for pies.
 Turban Squash has colors that vary from bright orange, to green or white. It has golden-yellow flesh and its taste is reminiscent to hazelnut. Has a bulblike cap swelling from its blossom end, come in bizarre shapes with extravagant coloration that makes them popular as harvest ornamentals. It is popular for centerpieces, and its top can be sliced off so it can be hollowed and filled with soup. A larger variety of the buttercup squash, the turban has a bright orange-red rind. The turban-like swirl on its blossom end is a fanciful variegated orange, red and white. Its flesh and storage ability are comparable to the buttercups.
from Rebecca Wood's The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia |
