When I first thought of choosing squash for this week, I looked up which ones I could find easily and I saw a picture of roasted delicata squash and it just looked absolutely mesmerizing. It was one of those weird moments where I saw something that I had no idea what it would taste like, but the picture just looked so appealing I had to find out what it was. That was the moment I was sold on squash.
This is the one squash that looks like the fancy decorative squash that nobody would imagine eating. Imagine my surprise and joy when I set out to eat the delicata only to find it sitting in a pile of squash people purchase for their fall decor. I wanted a big bite out of a display, even more than those tasty foam apples in bowls.
I should note that the delicata is the smallest of the squash that I purchased. It reminded me of a loofah gourd so I truly hope that this would be full of weird holes like a loofah. Side note, I want to see if I can grow a loofah gourd so I can have a loofah next spring. Just say it to yourself, loofah.
As soon as I sliced it in half I wondered if this one would really yield much food. You scrape the seeds out, which is easy, much like when you carve a jack-o-lantern. There’s so little flesh all around it though it didn’t seem like there would be much to actually eat.
I plodded on though and felt better knowing I don’t have to peel it as well.
I’m not sure if anyone saves the seeds from these assorted gourds and roasts them like they would do pumpkin seeds. There is probably some website somewhere that says you can roast any seeds or you have to soak them in some kind of saltwater solution, dry them, then roast in the oven and grind them into a powder just so you can get like five extra grams of some random vitamin a day. I just didn’t feel like looking it up and didn’t really care to put in the effort of sorting through these itty bitty seeds.
Hollowing it out was a breeze and it wound up looking gorgeous at the end. I bet these would be awesome vessels to stuff with things like rice or some other mixtures. It looks so fresh it reminds me of papaya and makes me want to take a big bite and expect some tropical flavors, but I resisted, much like I resist around foam apples.
The slices turned out gorgeous as well, I love how the skin contrasts to the inner flesh of the delicata.
I went a pretty simple route and just roasted them in some salt, pepper and olive oil. I just wanted a nice little basic squash to munch on, especially since the squash itself was fairly small, the size of a big banana or small plantain.
I struggled with finding photos of these because I actually kept eating them when I was cooking. I don’t think I mentioned it, but I cooked all five of the squash in one day. The kitchen was my home base from 11 A.M. to 6 P.M. that night and I felt so productive it was crazy.
I got these crispy to really crisp up the skin and the inside had to be the sweetest squash of the ones I’ve tried so far. This is overtaking butternut squash’s spot as the sweetest (I would describe it as more of a creamy taste and texture combo). The outside crispiness on the outside coupled with the salt and pepper went fantastic with the sweetness on the inside. I was so surprised by how sweet it was that I kept eating on them like they were handfuls of popcorn.
With these delicate little morsels of delicata squash, they represent week 40 and the actual current week we are in. At the end of this post I will be caught up in this 52 week adventure.
I’m hoping you all are enjoying this squash-travaganza and can appreciate the differences in these gourds. I would have just spaced them out throughout the year, but it would only result in way more squash posts than you would enjoy, trust me. Also, now is the time to hop on the enjoying fall bandwagon and go buy some of these weird squash varieties.
Try 52 