I grew up eating roasted acorn squash in it's entirety, skin and all. Then someone—I can't remember who—told me I was doing it wrong. So I stopped. But recently that got me wondering: was it actually okay to eat the skin all along?
Confused, I turned to Chris Romano, the Global Produce Buyer for Whole Foods Market, for help.
Getting into The Thick (and thin) of it
Technically, all winter squash skin is edible. "It's just a question of texture. There's no danger in consuming the skin—some just taste better than others," says Romano.
The thicker the skin, the greater chance it will remain tough to chew even after it's cooked. So reaching for a thin-skinned variety is your safest bet. Tiny, oblong delicata squash is the darling among the thin skin crowd. When cooked, its skin practically melts away and is hardly noticeable. Other varieties that are known for thin skin are sweet dumpling and red kuri.
Young, small squash also have a thinner skin. So petite butternut and kabocha squash don't necessarily need to be peeled.
And even thicker-skinned squash is fine if you cook it long enough. "If you roast any squash for a long enough time, the skin is easier to eat," says Romano. (Highly recommended: roasting acorn squash wedges with the skin on.)
There are only two types of squash to avoid. The first is spaghetti. "The skin of spaghetti squash really kind of has an egg shell-like texture to it that's flaky and unpleasant," says Romano. The second is squash that's extra shiny, a sign that the squash has probably been coated with a food grade wax to help keep it fresh for a long period of time. The wax is edible, but it's still, you know, wax—and no amount of roasting can change that.
