Calabaza Squash

Week: 10
Ingredient: Calabaza Squash
From: Martin's, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Mashed Winter Squash¹

Last time I went to the grocery store, I was in a hurry, so I decided to grab the first unusual thing that I could find. In the produce section, I found what looked like a small, tan-colored pumpkin. It was a calabaza squash. The truth is that I have absolutely nothing interesting to say about it. I made “Mashed Winter Squash,” more or less by the Joy of Cooking recipe,¹ and it was pretty much like any other winter squash. I would say its flavor is somewhere between butternut squash and pumpkin—squashy and slightly sweet. It takes a while to make, but that is only because of the cooking time; the prep is quick and easy. It makes a nice winter vegetable. And I mean “nice” in the completely-generic-positive-adjective kind of way.

After I made the mashed squash, I took the seeds and toasted them (also more or less by the Joy of Cooking recipe¹). They made a nutty, salty, crunchy, and wonderfully addicting snack. Also nice. But this time I mean “nice” in the one-word-phrase-said-with-heart sort of way. (Not quite the way Kevin Malone would say it, but something like that.) And if the delicious snack was not enough, there was also the good feeling I got from being so frugal ... (Mennonite?)

Conclusion: I would not go out of my way to find calabaza squash, but if it was available and priced the same as other squash varieties, I would use it again. My biggest takeaway from this experience is not to throw away squash seeds. If a squash (or more likely a pumpkin) has a good seed yield, it is definitely worth the effort to toast the seeds. What a delicious snack! Supposedly squash seeds are healthy too (but that’s probably before they are coated with oil and salt).

¹Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, & Ethan Becker, Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary ed. (New York: Scribner, 2006), 71, 308-309.