A few years in the past a household buddy hosted a cocktail party and began the meal with a scrumptious lentil curry and acorn squash soup. This was 25 (or extra) years in the past, but I nonetheless keep in mind that soup as a result of it was the primary time I ate the pores and skin of acorn squash. After the primary chew, I assumed the host was being lazy by not peeling the squash, or that she simply made a mistake. However, to my shock, the squash pores and skin was chewy but tender, and everybody commented on the beautiful texture and taste of that curry squash soup.
This straightforward soup from many years in the past impressed me all these years later to go away the skins on when making a chunky acorn squash soup. However these days I’ve been questioning, is it truly fit for human consumption squash pores and skin? I made a decision to do a deep dive on the subject.
Is Squash Pores and skin Edible?
Definitely I do know you may eat the pores and skin on summer season squashes, like zucchini, pattypan and yellow summer season squash. With their skinny pores and skin and watery flesh, leaving the skins on helps give summer season squash a pleasantly chewy texture.
However what about heartier winter squashes, with their powerful and infrequently tough skins? Most recipes for delicata squash, like this vibrant and recent Honey-Glazed Roasted Delicata Squash, name for slicing and roasting the small, yellow-and-green-striped squash unpeeled. However I wish to know if all squash pores and skin is fit for human consumption, not simply delicata.
To get a solution, I went to an area farm and chatted with a few specialists.
“It’s positively OK to eat squash pores and skin,” Rayna Joyce, vegetable manufacturing supervisor at Bread and Butter Farm in Shelburne, Vermont, advised me. “Some (winter) squash have actually delicate skins they usually change into tender when cooked. You’ll be able to bake them and eat the entire thing.”
Winter squash are harvested from late summer season via late fall, then allowed to “remedy” in a dry, low-humidity setting, about 70° to 80°F, till the skins are utterly dry and arduous.
“Curing helps the squash toughen and dry out so you may retailer it longer,” Joyce mentioned. This course of is comparable for different storage greens like onions, potatoes and garlic.
Are Squash Wholesome?
Winter squash are full of plenty of vitamins. Including them to your meal rotation is a good way to get fiber, together with nutritional vitamins A and C, potassium and antioxidants. Take into account that 1 cup of baked butternut squash, probably the most in style types of winter squash, offers 160% of your day by day really useful worth of vitamin A, together with 7 grams of fiber—and should you eat the peel, you’ll get slightly further.
When Ought to You Peel Winter Squash?
From a culinary perspective, deciding whether or not to take away the pores and skin on winter squash all is dependent upon the specified texture of the ultimate product, in line with Mike Proia, proprietor and chef of Clean Web page Cafe at Bread and Butter Farm in Shelburne, Vermont.
“Squash pores and skin is fairly strong and thick for a cause; it’s meant to be saved. However the pores and skin is edible. If it’s cooked down, it turns into palatable,” he mentioned.
Proia sources a lot of the produce for his gluten-free baked items, take-home meals and catering occasions from the farm (which is actually proper outdoors his door), so he’s very conversant in turning recent produce into scrumptious meals. He makes use of the farm’s assortment of squash all through the winter. And he removes the pores and skin provided that it’ll intrude with the feel of the dish.
“Roasting and braising can break down the pores and skin rather well,” he mentioned. “The pores and skin can truly add a pleasant texture.” Like when making roasted butternut rings or acorn squash wedges, he likes to go away the skins on for texture, much like leaving the pores and skin on roasted delicata rings.
However, he mentioned, there are occasions you wouldn’t need the chewiness of the pores and skin to intrude with the feel of the dish. “In case you make mashed butternut squash, the pores and skin may add an disagreeable texture,” as a result of the pores and skin will likely be chewy in an in any other case easy puree, he defined.
Maybe the very best selection for consuming the pores and skin, along with delicata, is honeynut. They seem like mini butternut squash and are significantly candy. Honeynut squash are particularly scrumptious roasted with slightly cinnamon and butter.
The one winter squash pores and skin to keep away from consuming altogether, even when effectively cooked, is spaghetti squash due to its thick, eggshell-like high quality.
Backside Line
Subsequent time you roast a squash like acorn, butternut or honeynut, strive leaving the skins on and provides them a nibble. Make sure to scrub the pores and skin effectively, Joyce recommends, to take away any grime or particles. The pleasantly chewy texture may shock you, plus you may by no means go flawed with extra fiber.
