What To Do With All That Squash

Sept. 18, 2015

It’s a familiar sight, even for amateur gardeners: Fall arrives and, with it, an overabundance of squash, from zucchini to pumpkins to butternuts.

Even if you didn’t manage to grow much else, chances are the squash survived, culinary stalwarts that they are.

Now, what are you going to do with them? We asked several area chefs for some of their tastiest advice.

NANCY KELLY
Nancy Kelly’s Restaurant, Pellston

Kelly’s restaurant in Pellston features a menu that shifts weekly based on what’s in season and whatever catches Kelly’s culinary fancy.

She often uses squash in things like soups or a rich Moroccan stew, and local vegetables are often included as accompaniments to both her starters and entrees, but she finds that it takes more than a little effort to shape squash into something more complex or exotic. One of her favorite squash recipes, a vegan tomato zucchini casserole, takes nearly a dozen ingredients, including green onions, Mexican chilies and vinegar.

What’s her advice for everyday squash use? Keep it simple.

“My chef Tony Francis simply sautés green or golden zucchini in a bit of olive oil, seasons it with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and then, off the heat, he throws in some fresh garden herbs like basil, parsley and lovage,” Kelly said. “Just serve it with a baguette for the juices, and you’re good to go!”

JAMES MORSE
The Boathouse, Traverse City

With different squashes, you can do different things, said Morse, but it all starts with knowing the differences between them.

“Summer squashes are zucchini, pattypan, yellow squash — the ones that are harvested around late August and don’t store well,” he explained. “Winter squashes are the hard squashes — butternut, hubbard, acorn — the ones that do store well, but aren't harvested until September.”

Boathouse owner Doug Kosch has a farm, where Morse explained they have six varieties of squash growing now, so there are already many squash plans in the works.

“A really good way to preserve some of the smaller squashes is to pickle them,” he said. “The recipe is simple; you just parboil the squash, do a hot pack into jars with vinegar brine, dill, garlic and cayenne pepper, and put in the fridge.”

The pickled squash gets better over a week, he said, but if you take the extra steps to properly can it, it will keep for even longer.

“Another thing we’re doing that’s a little more unusual is that we take the squash blossoms without the fruit and we tempurafry them, using them as an edible garnish on salmon,” Morse added. “Sometimes there are bees inside, so we definitely have to check and get those out first!” Morse isn’t a huge fan of the popular pumpkin.

“I think pumpkin pie can actually be overly sweet sometimes,” he said. “You can get a more savory flavor with squash for pie or cheesecake; many squashes are sweet enough on their own already.”

ERIC PATTERSON
The Cook’s House, Traverse City

With a background in French cooking and a penchant for local produce, Patterson has plenty of ideas for squash. The first involves acquiring as many as possible while they’re in season.

“If you keep winter squash in a basement or cool area, they’ll hold up for quite a while,” he said. “A couple of years ago, we bought literally about 1,000 pounds of squash in November, and it was good until February.”

Like with Morse, pumpkin isn’t on Patterson’s favorites list for much, although he does like it for pie.

“Regular pumpkin makes awful soup; it’s so watery and has zero flavor. It’s one of the worst squashes on the planet," Patterson said.

However, he finds the rest of the winter squashes great for risotto and East Indian dishes.

“I like to make a risotto with squash as an added component,” he explained. “You can either dice it and sauté it with spices before adding to the risotto, or make a puree of any hard squash and add that in. Kabocha squash makes the very best puree, it has less water, so it makes for much stronger flavor."

An East Indian dish called subji is another that Patterson feels lends itself well to squash.

“It’s basically a great sauté of vegetables, usually made with potato, but we make it with squash,” he said, “plus spicy ground peppers, garam masala (a spice mix common in north India) and, finally, kashmiri chilies for heat, which hit your palate differently than just using cayenne.”

SCOTT SCHORNAK
Pond Hill Farm Cafe, Harbor Springs

“You can hide squash in so many things — to thicken tomato soup, for instance,” Schornak said, “but my new favorite is what I call zuccha ganoush. It’s like baba ganoush, which is usually made with eggplant, but I actually might like it better.”

Schornak “roasts the heck” out of zucchini until the outside is charred, scrapes out the cooked insides and purees them with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and tahini, a flavorful sesame seed paste.

“Then, you just serve it up with pita bread,” he said. “It’s so incredibly good and, if you have an abundance of zucchini — and who doesn’t? — it takes several pounds of zucchini to make a decent-sized serving of this.”

With winter squash in general, Schornak said he tends to use them in ways opposite of what you’d expect.

“A couple of other dishes are our coldroasted squash salad, which I make by dicing and roasting pretty much any winter squash and tossing the cubes with sage, apple cider vinegar, dried cranberries and walnuts,” he said.