Falling for winter squash -- with 11 recipes that will win you over

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Beef stew with chayotes (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

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Recipe: Roasted acorn squash and apple salad (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

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A turkey sandwich made with buckwheat bread, kabosha squash whipped with creme fraiche, applewood smoked bacon, hot carved turkey, romaine and cranberry chutney, as prepared at Mendocino Farms in West Hollywood. Recipe (Christina House / For the Los Angeles Times)

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Andalusian stew (berza Andaluza) (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

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Kabocha squash kimpura (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Spiced squash and pear purée (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

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Roasted kabocha squash and celery root soup with maple syrup and brown butter (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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The root vegetable shepherd’s pie with butternut squash puree from Rustic Canyon Wine Bar & Seasonal Kitchen in Santa Monica. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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This creamy butternut squash soup can benefit from a little bit of apple cider vinegar. The vinegar by itself has an identifiably apple flavor, but when added to the soup it disappears, leaving a pronounced squash flavor. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Garnish this squash soup with fresh pomegranate seeds and candied pecans -- perfect for the holiday table. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

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If roasting, give the cubes a turn in some good chili powder and moisten them with pumpkin seed oil first. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

By Russ Parsons

Sept. 28, 2013 7 AM PT

Never mind the name, these sweet, nutty squash are harvested in the fall. They are called “winter” because their hard shells allow them to be stored for extended periods, and in the days before refrigeration, that was a quality more worth honoring than mere harvest seasonality. The earliest winter squash are just beginning to trickle into the market -- kabocha, butternut and acorn, mostly.

When they’re first picked, they can be a little short on flavor. But after a week or two that changes, particularly for squash such as butternut and kabocha. These benefit from a couple of weeks of “curing” after being harvested, which allows time for enzymes to convert some of their starch into sugar. Acorns are from another family and do not require curing. They’re better bets this early in the season.

How to choose: Look for squash with deep, saturated colors and no soft spots or cracks. The stem should be hard and corky too.

How to store: Keep winter squash in a cool, dark place. You don’t need to refrigerate them.

How to prepare: Here’s a recipe for happiness during the coming rainy season: Hack off a chunk of winter squash and remove the seeds; place it cut-side down in a pan with just a little water, and roast it at 400 degrees until the whole thing collapses into a sweet, fragrant, slightly caramelized puree.

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