My favourite is kabocha squash, which we call Kent pumpkin here.

With winter squash, if you are roasting it in pieces it doesn’t really matter if you peel or don’t peel. I peel if it’s easy to peel like butternut squash, and I peel the kabocha if I’m roasting it in smaller pieces say 2 1/2” cubes, but if I’m roasting it in wedges or halves for making into soup I don’t peel. When you’re eating it you just ignore the peel, and for soup just scoop the soft flesh off the peel.

To roast it, lightly oil and bake in the oven along with your meat. The smaller cubes take about 30 minutes. Larger wedges with the wider end about 2” thick about the same or a little longer. DH dislikes winter squash, but will eat it willingly drizzled with a sauce made of roughly equal amounts of miso paste and maple syrup (sounds weird but it’s really good) and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Edited to add: Of course, remove the seeds.

I cut a delicata in half, remove the seeds and place upside down on a baking sheet and bake at 350 until it's soft....try with a knife tip. Then serve each person a half with a pat of butter and some salt and pepper.

I used to love turban squash until one ate my knife. :) I mostly make the softer skinned ones like pumpkin, acorn and kabocha. Agreed that with either soft or hard skin, it doesn't matter if your first step is cooking the squash. If you introduce a little steam (sometimes there's enough water in the flesh that it'll steam itself), the flesh will pull away from the skin of a soft skinned squash.

I've had preparations of both acorn and kabocha where the squash was sliced thinly from outside in and cooked and eaten with the bit of skin on. I've never done that myself.

You can replace just about any savory pumpkin recipe with winter squash or other edible gourds, and there are plenty of those. It's boring, but I really like squash soup. :)

We get little round orange ones - individual serving sized ones....I cut off a hat and scoop out the seeds. Sprinkle in a little salt and pepper, put the hat back on and bake it for about 30 - 40 minutes until soft inside.

Meanwhile, cook some sliced leeks in butter till soft, add seasoning, creme fraiche and grated cheddar. Put this mix in your little squashes- dont fill them! And bake for another 10 - 15 mins, not diety but lovely on a cold day!

IC, that sounds very French and wonderful! We get little kabochas and sometimes some others. This is on my must try soon list. Maybe perfect for a small dinner party next week.

Plllog, we have a pumpkin here called the Queensland Blue which is best split with an axe.

Though it's a pain to clean them, the seeds of winter squashes are delicious dried and roasted. I use a little oil, soy sauce, some roasted garlic powder and a pinch of cayenne.

Delicata I often cut in half, remove seeds, slice (skin on), toss in olive oil, and roast that way. I've never found the skin to be tough. Are you sure it's delicata and not sugar dumpling or one of the other acorn hybrids?

My mom's way of doing the winter squashes that you could split was to cut them in half, deseed, and then put a pat of butter and a drizzle of maple syrup inside, then roast.

But our favorite was hubbard, which is probably something like your Queensland Blue, colleenoz. That my dad would hack apart with the axe, and then mom would steam the pieces, scrape out the flesh, mash it up a bit, and bake it. By far the nicest winter squash, if a big pain to prepare. (ETA Nope, Queensland Blue is much pumpkin-ier than hubbard, so I guess probably not that much alike.)

I do Delicata like Writersblock.

My favorite is Honey Nut. It's a smaller, sweeter butternut. So disappointed I couldn't find it anywhere this year.

Yes, I like Honey Nut, too, but we only had it in the stores here once, about two years ago.

I appreciate all the suggestions. As to named varieties, typically what I find in the grocery is a bin full of the mixed beauties with only an occasional squash having some kind of sticker or tag denoting an actual variety name.

Just as an additional note, the Dallas Arboretum always does an amazing pumpkin display around Halloween each year. This year displaying in excess of 70,000+ pumpkins/winter squash of various sizes and types, its quite a sight. They also display an assortment of the different named varieties, usually in the Children's Section, where they're used both as an educational display and also as artistic scenarios.

Almost wishing I hadn't asked, I inquired as to what happen to all those beautiful pumpkins and squashes after the Halloween period and was informed that all are used in the Arboretum's compost piles to provide material for future plantings. At least they don't go to the dump...

Again, I appreciate your suggestions and will try to spend a bit more effort making this winter squash thing work for us.

We like acorn and buttercup squash the most. I just cut them in half scoop out the seeds and bake cut side down in a baking dish with a scant bit of water until tender. We like it with a bit of salt, pepper, a pat of butter and a spoonful of orange marmalade.

I've sliced acorn, spaghetti, and other squash into rings with the rind on and roasted on a parchment lined cooky sheet, drizzled with some olive oil.

Not sure if this is clear, but when I want to peel winter squash, I don't try to use a vegetable peeler on hard shells, but rather cut crosswise into thick rings, lay the rings flat on a cutting board and use a chef's knife to go around and trim the rind off each slice.

Easiest and most delicious IMPO, is to simply split in half without peeling, clean the seed cavity and put some butter and fresh rosemary, or butter, ginger, molasses/honey/maple syrup in the cavity and bake in a covered casserole dish until soft.

I also add chunks of peeled winter squash when I make roasted meat and vegetable 1 pan meals, like herbed chicken legs w/ squash, potatoes, onions and peppers, or chunks of sausage w/ similar veggies.

I'm going to make lentil soup tonight w/ chunks of butternut squash, celery, onion and curry seasoning.

'm going to make lentil soup tonight w/ chunks of butternut squash, celery, onion and curry seasoning.

Oh, yum!

I just ordered Honey Nut seeds for next year. I have a small garden, so may try growing them on an obelisk.

Islay, they had some smallish round acorn squash going orange at the store, so I bought some to try your recipe next week. I'm guessing they're a bit bigger than yours, but still in the individual serving neighborhood for the young people with the hearty appetites. :)

Bon appetit!