Winter Squash is simply a category of vegetable. It includes all the "hard sided" squashes like pumpkins, butternut squash, acorn squash and so on. All are quite healthy for you, and tasty too!

Acorn Squash
Here you can see exactly what makes a winter squash a winter squash. It has a hard outer shell that helps it survive early frosts. You typically cut winter squash in half, scoop out the seeds, cook it for a short while and then scoop out the flesh.

With an acorn squash, talk about easy! They are small and easy to manage. Once sliced, you pop it in the microwave for a few minutes with butter, and enjoy! They are delicious, easy to prepare, and full of nutrients.

Buttercup Squash
Very much like an acorn squash, you cook these in pretty much the exact same way. Microwave (or cook in the oven), scoop out the squash and enjoy. It does great on its own, with butter, with low carb brown sugar, or mashed up as a side dish. These squash have a naturally sweet flavor.

Butternut Squash
Butternut squash are the long, yellow squash with a bulb at one end. They do wonderfully mashed up.

Pumpkin
This is probably the squash that most of us recognize easily. It's big, it's orange, it gets carved into jackolanterns at the end of October. Pumpkin Pie can be really tasty, as is pumpkin stew.

Spaghetti Squash
Another long, yellow squash, this one is a smooth oval rather than a lopsided one like the butternut. It doesn't have spaghetti inside it! Instead, the flesh here is long and stringy, meaning you can use it LIKE spaghetti. It works wonderfully done with olive oil, tomatoes, basil and oregano.

Squash in general is fantastic because you can store it for a long while, it keeps very well, it's very flavorful and high in nutrition. You don't need to "do" a lot to a squash to make it great. You can eat it plain, just add butter, or liven it up with a collection of spices. However, while summer squash (like zucchini) can be eaten raw in a salad, in general you do want to cook a winter squash before you eat it.

Great Low Carb Squash Recipes