The Kinds of Squash You Don't Have to Peel (2024)

FAQs

What squash can you eat with the skin? ›

Always: Acorn, Delicata, Honeynut

Wofford and our test kitchen editors will leave the skin on delicata, acorn, and honeynut squash to save time, add nutrients, and reduce food waste. These varieties have thin skins that soften readily when cooked. Next time you slice a delicata into rings ready to roast, don't peel it.

Some squash skin is edible, while other types of squash have tough skin that can be removed before cooking. Remove the skin of butternut, hubbard, buttercup, and turban squash. If you enjoy the taste, leave the skin on acorn, spaghetti, kabocha, and zucchini squash.

“It's definitely OK to eat squash skin,” Rayna Joyce, vegetable production manager at Bread and Butter Farm in Shelburne, Vermont, told me. “Some (winter) squash have really delicate skins and they become tender when cooked. You can bake them and eat the whole thing.”

The kabocha skin is edible. Many Japanese kabocha recipes such as kabocha tempura and simmered kabocha require it to keep the skin on. However, if you want to show that beautiful orange color in your recipe, you have to remove the rind as the dark green kabocha skin will not keep the beautiful orange flesh color.

Yellow squash does not need to be peeled because the skin is so tender and thin. If you do prefer to peel your squash, peel it just like you would a carrot or potato. Slice it in half, lengthwise.

Knowing if your summer squash is still fresh is very similar with winter squash, but note that summer squash tends to turn bad much quicker. For best flavor, check for these signs of spoilage: Visible mold and fungus. Mushy, soft spots on a whole squash, that when cut are spongy and soft.

Do You Peel Zucchini? You'll get the most health benefits if you eat the colorful skin, which holds the healthy carotenoids. Zucchini skin is soft, thin, and perfectly edible, so don't peel it off.

Some gourds should not be eaten as they contain bitter-tasting cucurbitacins, which can be toxic and cause nausea and vomiting. Along with these inedible gourds, some squashes can also develop a bitter taste through cross-contamination or plant stress and should not be eaten for the same reason.

Its small size lends itself well to simply halving it before you cook it, and its tender skin is thin and edible, so it does not need to be peeled.

Zucchini, yellow squash, and crookneck squash all have completely edible skin and seeds. Pattypan squash generally has edible skin, but the larger the squash the tougher the skin is. Take the time to roast a larger pattypan so the skin becomes softer, and you may want to remove the large seeds.

Should acorn squash be peeled? ›

Good news: you don't need to peel acorn squash. Its hard, grooved skin softens significantly as it cooks, and it's edible, too. If you do want to remove the skin, wait until after you cook it, at which point it will peel right off.

It's important to note that while many people choose to remove butternut squash skin (and this is best practice for soup making, where you want smooth results), you can 100% eat roasted butternut squash skin. Slice butternut squash into crescents and roast it with the skin on.

So what kinds of squash do we actually recommend eating with the skin on? We have three types of squash that we will always attack without peeling. Those would be honeynut, acorn, and delicata.

You'll know kabocha squash is bad if you feel soft spots or if the color is off. If either is the case, don't buy them (or throw them away if you already bought them).

Kabocha squash has dark green skin and an orange interior with a fluffy, chestnut-like texture. Its sweet flavor might remind you of sweet potatoes or the sort of sugar pumpkins you bake into pumpkin pie. The exterior may have faint stripes or bumps, and there are some orange-skinned kabocha as well.

Certainly I know you can eat the skin on summer squashes, like zucchini, pattypan and yellow summer squash. With their thin skin and watery flesh, leaving the skins on helps give summer squash a pleasantly chewy texture.

Wash squash and cut off ends before eating. The peel is edible and mild. Squash can be eaten raw or cooked.

You can eat the skin, so there's no need to peel it. Simply halve it, scoop out the seeds and chop it into chunks, then roast it and add it to a warm winter salad or throw it into curries, stews or soups.