Are you wanting to boost your wholesome meals through the colder months? Look no additional than the unimaginable world of squash! With a wide range of shapes, colours, flavors, and textures, squash provides each versatility and vitamin to your menu. Immerse your self within the wonders of winter squash, uncover the perfect varieties, and let your culinary creativity flourish with scrumptious squash recipes. Get began with our handpicked choice of the highest seven varieties of squash beneath. Your style buds will thanks!
1. Butternut Squash
A tube-shaped squash with a bulbous finish, butternut has easy, buff-colored pores and skin. The fine-textured, deep-orange flesh tastes just like candy potatoes, although some liken the flavour to butterscotch.
Nutrisystem Class: SmartCarb
Vitamin Highlights: A one-cup serving has 63 energy, 2.8 grams of fiber, no fats and negligible quantities of sodium, however it provides you 14 p.c of your RDA for potassium and a whopping 297 p.c of your every day vitamin A provide.
Strive: Due to its easy and non-stringy texture, butternut squash is good for soups. Many bakers additionally choose it over pumpkin for making pies. Strive our Creamy Butternut Squash Soup recipe that’s good for cool climate, then take a look at our different wholesome butternut squash recipes.
2. Acorn Squash
Because the identify suggests, this squash is formed like an acorn, with distinct ribs on its onerous, black-green pores and skin. The golden-yellow flesh inside is good with a touch of nuttiness and it’s a bit fibrous. Acorn squash are usually small–largely between 1 and three kilos–so they’re simple to chop in half and serve inside their pores and skin.
Nutrisystem Class: SmartCarb
Vitamin Highlights: You get 56 energy, 2.1 grams of fiber, and 25 p.c of your RDA for vitamin C in a one-cup serving of acorn squash.
Strive: Gradual baking brings out the pure sweetness of acorn squash. Strive it out on this Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe.
3. Spaghetti Squash
This selection will get its identify as a result of when the cooked flesh is scraped from the pores and skin with a fork it comes out in yellow strands that resemble pasta. The entire squash has a watermelon-like form (although they usually weigh lower than 5 kilos) and golden-yellow pores and skin. The flavour could be very gentle.
Nutrisystem Class: Greens
Vitamin Highlights: With simply 42 energy per one-cup serving, 2.2 grams of fiber and 10 grams of carbohydrates, spaghetti squash is a more sensible choice than even the healthiest kind of pasta. It additionally provides you 181 milligrams of potassium and nearly no sodium.
Strive: You may swap out common noodles for baked spaghetti squash in many various recipes. We use it to create this low-carb model of the fashionable Baked Feta Pasta!
4. Delicata Squash
The green-and-white-striped delicata squash will not be as acquainted to many individuals as the primary three on this checklist, however its reputation is rising quickly as a result of it’s so tasty and straightforward to organize. The creamy flesh inside tastes like corn, however even sweeter. Delicata has a thinner, extra tender pores and skin than different winter squashes; the truth is, you possibly can eat the pores and skin somewhat than take away it.
Nutrisystem Class: SmartCarb
Vitamin Highlights: In a single cup of Delicata squash, you get 82 energy, 1.5 grams of fiber, 52 p.c of your RDA for vitamin C and 457 p.c of the RDA for vitamin A.
Strive: Minimize delicata squash in half after which into C-shaped slices. Delicata takes solely 15 to twenty minutes to bake and solely wants a bit of salt and pepper to focus on its flavors. Take a look at this Roasted Delicata Squash Salad or strive one thing fancier with our Vegetarian Stuffed Delicata Squash recipe.
5. Hubbard Squash
One of many largest varieties, hubbard squash usually weigh 8 to twenty kilos. Their roundish form and nubbly pores and skin resembles that of their shut cousin, pumpkins, although hubbard’s outer colour ranges from orange to grayish blue. Beneath the onerous pores and skin, the yellow flesh is good, dry and fine-textured.
Nutrisystem Class: SmartCarb
Vitamin Highlights: Hubbards have comparatively excessive sugar content material, which pushes up the calorie depend in a one-cup serving to 102. Nevertheless it comes with 10 grams of fiber, 734 milligrams of potassium, and no fats.
Strive: You may bake hubbard squash complete–simply use a knife to pierce the pores and skin in just a few locations to permit air to flee. For the perfect taste, roast halves of squash, minimize facet up in a shallow pan of water for about 1 hour.
6. Kabocha Squash
Often known as Hokkaido or Japanese Pumpkin, kabocha has inexperienced, bluish-gray, or deep orange pores and skin. The deep yellow or pale orange flesh inside has a evenly candy taste and a dry, flaky texture. Kabocha squash are usually small (most are 2 to three kilos), so they’re typically used as an alternative to pumpkins, when a smaller squash could be simpler to cook dinner.
Nutrisystem Class: SmartCarb
Vitamin Highlights: One cup of kabocha squash has 53 energy, 3 grams of fiber and eight grams of complete carbohydrates. As a result of it’s so low in energy, you possibly can take pleasure in two cups as a SmartCarb alternative on Nutrisystem.
Strive: Roasted kabocha minimize into cubes provides a touch of sweetness to salads or blended vegetable medleys. Including pureed kabocha helps make stews and soups thicker.
7. Calabaza Squash
Folks with Caribbean heritage will acknowledge the calabaza, which can be known as West Indian pumpkin due to its form and colour. The very onerous pores and skin could also be tan, inexperienced, or reddish orange. The golden orange flesh is sweeter and juicier than most different winter squashes and the feel is easy, just like the butternut.
Nutrisystem Class: SmartCarb
Vitamin Highlights: You get 76 energy, 5.7 grams of fiber, 6.8 grams of sugar, 33 p.c of your RDA for vitamin C, and nearly 300 p.c of your every day vitamin A wants from a one-cup serving.
Strive: Chunks of steamed calabaza are a young addition to rice and salads. Roasted calabaza seeds are additionally tasty and loaded with vitamins.