This Weeks Healthiest Food - WINTER SQUASH
 

http://www.whfoods.com/index.html?PH...cf68e93580e481

Yum. Yum. Yum.

I LOVE winter squash. Something that I never even glanced at or knew what it was before my lifestyle change. Now it's a staple of mine.

I love butternut squash just cut open and sprinkled with tons of cinnamon and drizzled with sugar free maple syrup and baked in the oven.

I also LOVE butternut squash soup. So decadent and rich tasting. And SO incredibly healthy.

They didn't mention a specific squash, just "winter". I'm not sure what that encompasses actually. But they did mention butternut in particular.

So what exactly do you all think of Winter Squash?

I recently did the baked acorn squash with brown sugar and LOVED it. I had several times that week. This week, while in Massachusetts, I found Delicata squash in the grocery store. Given all the ravings here, I thought it would be delectable, but it wasn't. Perhaps the squash was just really old, but it was pretty stringy and unpleasant. It's too bad. I was excited about all the hype. :)

Oh my, Baff, delicata should not be stringy and unpleasant. It should have a texture like other winter squash, and a nice squashy/sweet taste. Give it another chance. :)

I too love all squashes - winter esp. I did grow up eating time, and unlike other veggies, I don't think there's a bad way to good one. More caloric maybe, but hard to ruin. We had a butternut squash this weekend, just cut in half and cooked in the microwave. I'll bake them if I'm using the oven anyway, but it's faster in the microwave.

Robin - do you have a good recipe for squash soup? We had it as an appetizer for our work Christmas party - and it was to die for!

I would probably take up miles of this board professing my love of winter squash. So I won't. But you get the idea ;)

Oh, and here's a link to different types of winter squash. Of the ones I've tried, there's one I'm not crazy about and that's the Kabocha because it is very dry.

Sweet Dumpling and Delicata are super yummy, but I think of all the squashes, Butternut has to be my absolute favorite.

http://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm

Pat this recipe is so easy and oh so very delicious.

In a six quart pot, brown in a bit of olive oil and some cooking spray, a chopped spanish onion. Peel and cube a large butternut squash and brown that for about 10 mins with the onions. Add boiled water to almost the top of the pot, but not quite. Add some salt and pepper to taste and some powdered chicken consome. Simmer, covered til soft. When cooled down a bit, use an immersion blender and blend til smooth. Simply FANTASTIC!!

Baffled, I've never had stringy delicata squash. I've found it to be quite similar to butternut and acorn. I like it a lot because of the small size.

I am on a roll with kabocha. It can be a littled dry, but I nuke it in sections, cube (leaving skin on ) and then use in a tasty soup. Just made a giant pot yesterday. First saute sliced mushrooms in a sprayed pan, when almost done add roughly minced garlic. When done take out and start up some sliced leek. Add chicken stock, Dijon mustard, dash fish sauce, couple ginger slices, pepper, smoked paprika, hot pepper flakes, water, kabocha cubes, previously sauteed shrooms and garlic, and some pre-simmered shiritake noodles. Stir alot. it breaks the squash down so you get a creamy effect but still have some chunks. When everything is soft I add a bunch of chopped watercress and 1/3 cup coconut milk. Once the cress is softened, taste, re-season and enjoy. It thickens as it cools so when I re-heat a mug in the microwave I add water. A spoonful of fat free cottage cheese stirred into the hot hot soup adds a nice texture and some protein.

Tommy, that sounds heavenly! :drool:

I LOVE winter squash, though some are quite ugly and hard to identify :lol: I'm a big fan of butternut squash.

The delicata thing WAS very disappointing. Unfortunately I've never seen it in any of the grocery stores where I live, so I have no opportunity to try it again.

I grew up eating roasted butternut squash but I never really loved it. To my mind, butternut squash should be limited to soup (love BS soup). I haven't tried any of the other kinds aside from acorn and the disappointing delicata. The only other winter squash available around here is the spaghetti squash. Is that worth a try?

Spaghetti squash is good, though much more like a summer squash in taste. It's unique texture is what attracts a lot of folks. When you scrape it with a fork (after cooking) it makes pasta-like strands.

I only find delicata in my grocery store (Fred Meyer) in Sept/Oct. They have several different winter squashes then. Big Mama and Turban are two others I like, and Blue Hubbard (the skin, not the flesh, is blue (ish)!) :)

Hey, what a great idea, putting it in soup. I'll do that with other squashes and even sweet potatoes; dice them up and put them in soup I'm making.

I love butternut squash soup, but I also love baking it with brown sugar.