When you have a large crop of winter squash from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include it in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use it up before it goes bad without getting sick of it. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve winter squash.
NOTE: Winter squashes include butternut, acorn, and delicata squashes and pumpkins, among others. For summer squash, see our Simple Uses for Summer Squash article here.
- Steam it and mix with cinnamon, maple syrup, and pecorino romano.
- Steam it and mix with feta, garlic, pepitas, and a cayenne-based hot sauce.
- Sauté it with lentils and shiitake mushrooms.
- Fry or bake the blossoms.
- Bake it with cinnamon, maple syrup, and pecorino romano.
- Bake or roast it with rosemary and parmesan.
- Bake it with chicken and kale.
- Bake it with feta, garlic, pepitas, and a cayenne-based hot sauce.
- Stuff it with wild rice, mushrooms, and sage and bake.
- Stuff it with spinach and turkey and bake.
- Roast it with brussels sprouts and potatoes.
- Add it to quickbreads, muffins, and pancakes.
- Make spaghetti squash into a noodle substitute. This works especially well with baked "pasta" dishes, but it can be used for stovetop dishes as well.
- Bake spaghetti squash with tomatoes and ground beef, ground lamb, or ground turkey.
- Make squash fries. Most winter squashes make great fries, but butternut and acorn squash fries are an extra cut above.
- Add it to macaroni and cheese, alone or with sage. Chunks of butternut squash, acorn squash, and pumpkin are especially well-suited to this combination.
- Fill ravioli or tortellini with puréed winter squash and sage. Alternatively, purée the squash, add sage, and use the mixture as a sauce for premade ravioli or tortellini.
- Make a simple puréed soup with winter squash, cauliflower, and chicken broth or veggie broth.
- Make a simple puréed soup with winter squash, ginger, and coconut milk.
- Add it to other soups.
- Add (diced) cooked or baked squash to salads. You can even use these diced winter squash pieces as a Frame of an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Dice and freeze it to save it for later.
- Make squash chips. Winter squash chips are typically made using a dehydrator.
- Dry and roast hull-less pumpkin seeds to make pepitas. Pepitas are only made from the seeds of certain varieties of pumpkin. These varieties' seeds naturally grow without hulls. But if you are growing one of those varieties, this is a fantastic, delicious, practical way to make full use of your hard-earned harvest.
- Can it. Because winter squashes have a lower water content than summer squash, they can, in fact, be canned! Winter squash purées are best suited to pressure canning.
- Pickle it. Butternut squash, pumpkin, and other winter squashes can all be pickled, alone or with herbs like sage and/or rosemary. They are suited to both traditional and quick-pickling methods.
- Don't forget the leaves! Although they are typically too spiny to eat raw, squash leaves can be used in a variety of cooked preparations. Besides improving the texture, cooking squash leaves also reduces their oxalate content.
- Add squash leaves to sautés, stirfry, soups, and broths.
- Boil or steam the leaves with garlic and top them with salt, lemon juice, and your favorite herbs. Eat them as-is or add them to pasta dishes, rice bowls, other grain bowls, salads, and more.
- Make squash leaf (and pumpkin leaf) tea or add these leaves to tea blends. Squash leaf tea is best prepared as an infusion. Squash stems, blossoms, and tendrils can also be added to these teas and tea blends.
- Don't throw out the rest of the plant either! Winter squash stems, tendrils, and blossoms can also be added to soups, broths, stirfry, and sautés. Squash seeds can be added to broths as well.
Further Reading
Growing squash? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Winter squash is also featured in these articles:
- Quick Facts: Growing Squash and Pumpkins
- How to Preserve Your Harvest: Root Cellar Storage
- The Interesting Salad Protocol: How to Build an Interesting Salad