A Information to Sorts of Summer time Squash

Wandering across the farmers market in July, August, and September, there’s all the time a deluge of summer season squash, together with zucchini, yellow squash, pattypan, and extra. In contrast to its winter counterpart, summer season squash has a comparatively quick shelf life. And though pickling, dehydrating, and freezing are tenable choices, summer season squash is at its finest when contemporary. From grilling and roasting to blanching and sautéeing, there are a selection of how to take pleasure in squash, however given what number of varieties are on the market, it may be exhausting to know the place to start out. 

To essentially absorb each scrumptious chunk of this distinctive crop and be taught extra in regards to the completely different varieties and when and learn how to cook dinner with them, I reached out to vegetable knowledgeable chef Sarah Grueneberg, government chef and co-owner of Chicago’s critically acclaimed restaurant Monteverde. Her many years of cooking expertise—paired along with her childhood spent in her household’s private backyard and her 2022 cookbook Hearken to Your Greens—makes her an knowledgeable on all issues greens, together with summer season squash. Learn beneath to find out about what defines summer season squash, its differing types, and suggestions that will help you purchase the best one to fit your cooking wants—it doesn’t matter what variety you select.

Zucchini & Yellow Squash

Yellow Squash Casserole

What Is Summer time Squash?

Each summer season and winter squash belong to the genus Cucurbita, which additionally contains pumpkins and gourds. Though the phrases “squash” and “gourds” are considerably interchangeable, most botanists agree that “squash” refers to crops inside Cucurbita which are cultivated for consuming, whereas “gourd” as a substitute refers to members of the genus which are grown as decorative crops. Regardless, all of the crops contained inside this genus are technically categorized as herbaceous fruits since they include seeds. 

There are a selection of qualities that differentiate a summer season squash from a winter squash. The latter has a thick, exhausting rind that’s typically inedible; a dense, candy flesh that’s agency and retains a lot of its form when cooked; and is harvested in late summer season to early winter. Summer time squash, however, has a skinny, edible pores and skin; tender flesh with a light taste; and is harvested principally in June via August.

Summer time squash is native to the Americas and has lengthy been a staple ingredient in Central and South American cuisines. Squash derives its identify from the Narragansett tribe’s phrase “askutasquash,” which interprets to “eaten uncooked or raw.” European colonization disseminated summer season squash throughout the globe, and it has since change into a preferred ingredient in different international locations world wide, together with Italy, Lebanon, India, and the Philippines.

Apple

Chayote and Apple Salad With Citrus Dressing

cook dinner time:


70 minutes

serves:


2

Ideas for Choosing Summer time Squash

Regardless of the place summer season squash is grown or what particular selection it’s, in keeping with Grueneberg, there’s one overarching high quality to think about when assessing choices, relying on how you intend to organize it. “The flesh-to-seed ratio [in a bigger squash] is unquestionably completely different than in a smaller squash,” says Grueneberg. “In the event that they’re small and child, they are not going to have loads of seeds and they will be drier, so that they’ll char higher. They’ll keep just a little firmer in texture. The bigger the squash are, the extra water content material it can have and the larger the seed content material shall be.” Smaller squashes, subsequently, are higher for slicing and grilling or dressing and serving uncooked. Bigger squashes, however, fare higher break up in half, scooped out, and cooked.

Sorts of Summer time Squash

There are a selection of summer season squash you might come throughout in grocery shops, farmers markets, and worldwide markets. Under are seven varieties to familiarize your self with.

Yellow Squash

The yellow squash is maybe the primary selection that involves thoughts when picturing summer season squash. Brilliant and sunny in colour with a fats backside that tapers in the direction of the neck, yellow squash has a light taste and barely agency uncooked texture. Straightneck and crookneck squash are two varieties which are below the umbrella of yellow squash. They’re appropriate for all types of makes use of, together with thinly slicing into uncooked medallions and tossing with a easy dressing, herbs, and different accompaniments for a refreshing summer season salad, or minimize into cash, topped with crushed, buttery crackers and baked right into a yellow squash casserole for a comforting dinner. 

Zucchini

The workhorse of summer season squash, zucchini—a inexperienced squash that grows a few foot lengthy, barely resembling an English cucumber—is a staple in dwelling gardens and at farmers markets. Sauteéd, baked into zucchini bread, sliced lengthwise and grilled, or served as a vegetable carpaccio, the zucchini can discover a dwelling with virtually any cooking technique. Their delicate and grassy taste—which ranges from barely candy to barely bitter—aids on this summertime staple’s versatility and enduring reputation. Grueneberg can also be a fan of consuming uncooked zucchini salads, utilizing smaller “child” zucchinis, and talked about one method she employs to make sure her squash stay crunchy as a substitute of flabby.

“Should you shave them uncooked and for those who simply toss them with just a little little bit of salt, it completely adjustments texture,” says Grueneberg. Tossing uncooked zucchinis with salt attracts out the squash’s moisture via a course of referred to as osmosis. Because the salt sits on the floor of the zucchini, the moisture contained in the zucchini transfers throughout the plant’s cell membranes to the floor in an effort to obtain an equal quantity of hydration on each side of the membrane. Salting the squash—a way we additionally advocate with tomatoes and cucumbers—on this approach whereas it sits in a colander within the sink or a salad spinner permits the surplus moisture to empty off. What you’re left with are the crunchy, uncooked zucchinis Grueneberg likes to snack on as soon as dressed with oil and seasonings.

“We chill them down and toss them with olive oil and basil,” she says. “And it is some of the scrumptious methods I consider consuming uncooked squash.”

Pattypan

Characterised by their quick and squat look, pattypans are one other versatile summer season squash with a great deal of potential. Since they ripen in yellow, inexperienced, white, and variegated colour patterns, pattypans supply cooks extra attention-grabbing presentation choices in dishes past the usual yellow and inexperienced colours of different summer season squashes. Though they give the impression of being strikingly completely different from zucchinis, pattypans have a similar-but-sweeter style. They’re finest harvested when ripe however nonetheless small; the bigger they get, the starchier and extra bitter they change into.

Their squat form makes them good for roasting, they usually additionally fare properly on the grill if sliced in half lengthwise. As soon as barely cooled, grilled pattypan squash may be diced, seasoned, and added to salads, like on this grilled summer season squash salad with chimichurri. When grilled, they lend a definite evenly charred taste with out overpowering the opposite greens in a salad.

Chayote

Chayote squash, native to Mexico, has discovered a spot in a number of cuisines world wide. The squash is a pale inexperienced colour with a barely bumpy exterior and a brief, stout form that resembles a pear. Its crunchy, white flesh and barely candy, refreshing style is someplace between an apple and a cucumber. It’s change into a globally well-liked ingredient with many functions. In Filipino delicacies, the place chayote is known as “sayote”, it is added to stir-fries, chop suey, and soup. In southern Louisiana, chayote is known as “mirliton” and is stuffed, stewed, sautéed, and even utilized in casseroles. In Mexico, the squash is commonly included in soups, like caldo de res, or sliced in salads. Chayote can also be a part of the cuisines of Mauritius, Portugal, and India, to call a number of. Many of those cuisines incorporate the edible stems and leaves of the squash plant as properly.

“I’ve discovered that shaving them and simply doing an actual fast blanch on them and consuming them in a salad is absolutely yummy,” says Grueneberg. However working with chayote is kind of completely different from different summer season squashes, as a result of their noticeable excessive starch content material and tough texture when left uncooked. “I might positively put on gloves as a result of your palms will get that bizarre type of starchiness, like whenever you work with artichokes,” Grueneberg suggests.

Cousa

Well-liked in Center Jap cooking, cousa is mild inexperienced with a barely stumpier look than different summer season squash. Its form, coupled with its tender flesh and candy taste, makes it excellent for scooping out and stuffing with rice, meat, and spices, a preferred preparation throughout Center Jap cuisines (which regularly go by the identify dolma). After hollowing out the squash from its neck and stuffing it with a spiced floor beef combination, the entire squash is poached in tomato paste till it’s tender and the meat is properly completed. In Arabic, “cousa” refers to each the particular squash used on this dish, in addition to stuffed squash dishes themselves.

Tromboncino

Simply recognizable by its larger-than-life measurement, mild inexperienced pores and skin, and signature curve, the tromboncino squash is a longtime favourite amongst Italian cooks for a taste that’s delicate, nutty, and sweeter than zucchini. It’s an heirloom number of squash from the northern Italian area of Liguria. Italian cooks adore the big, curvy squash for its versatility, taste, and abundance throughout harvest.

Conventional Italian cooking strategies of the tromboncino embrace slicing, pan frying, and serving the squash as a facet dish, and utilizing its flesh rather than the extra customary russet potato to make gnocchi. Grueneberg is a fan of slicing tromboncino lengthwise and layering the slices rather than eggplants to make a tromboncino Parmesan, or incorporating them right into a Provençal tian.

Zephyr

The zephyr is a definite summer season squash marked by its two-tone yellow and inexperienced pores and skin that has a agency divide between the 2 colours on the squash’s pores and skin. Well-liked for its candy and nutty taste, the zephyr is a flexible summer season squash with a firmer texture that provides just a little complexity to any dish, together with pastas. It’s usually harvested when it’s between 4 and 6 inches lengthy. 

At dwelling, Grueneberg likes so as to add this squash to her pasta dishes whereas contemplating how its form will maintain up in opposition to the burden of the noodles: julienned for longer noodles, like spaghetti, or spiralized earlier than tossing with a curly noodle, like fusilli or cavatappi. 

Squash Blossoms

Technically squash blossoms aren’t summer season squashes themselves, nevertheless it felt incorrect to not not less than point out what I think about to be the most effective bites of the summer season. Squash blossoms are precisely as they sound: the fragile blossoms from the squash plant. You’ll be able to typically discover them at farmers markets, however for those who’re going to cook dinner garden-grown blossoms, it’s necessary to know which of them to reap.

Squash crops produce two kinds of flowers, with one in every of them offering pollen and the opposite being pollinated; the pollinated flowers are the blossoms that ultimately mature into squash. With a purpose to maximize the variety of mature squash you’re producing whereas nonetheless having fun with one of many season’s finest bites, pollen-producing blossoms are those to snip from the vine. A lot of these blossoms may be recognized by their lengthy stems that place the blossoms distant from the vine and the pollen-bearing anthers within the heart of the petals. It’s necessary to not harvest the entire pollen-bearing blossoms, although, as they’re important to creating positive the squash vines bear fruit.

Although it might be simple to imagine squash blossoms would have a floral taste to them, they’re really fairly delicate on their very own, with only a trace of squash taste. If left uncooked, they add a slight chew to any dish as a garnish. When fried within the conventional method, although, the blossoms have a satisfying crunch that shortly yields a gentle, virtually melting mouthfeel. “They’ve such a ravishing, pure, delicate taste of squash,” says Grueneberg. “They’re so enjoyable to both tear and fold right into a dish or to a salad. However fried squash blossoms are the most effective issues ever.”