Raw Squash In A Healthy Diet

Raw squash is surprisingly versatile, and a good addition to a number of healthy recipes.

We tend to think of these foods as only having a place in cooked cuisine, but many are edible and tasty raw. The key is picking the right ones.

If you know what to look for, you can pick and prepare some amazing dishes using them.

How The Cucubitaceae Family Fits Into A Healthy Diet

Squashes aren't going to be a staple of a healthy raw food diet.

They don't digest as well as many other vegetables, and lack many of the properties that make fruit such a good staple food.

Raw Squash Spiralized

Raw squash digestion seems to vary greatly from person to person.

I know several raw foodists who devour cucumbers with a passion but get a stomach ache when they start munching on zucchini.

Try a bunch of different kinds and figure out what works for you.

Picking The Right Raw Squash

Crack open the wrong squash (also called marrows) and eat it raw and you're likely spit it out pretty quick.

Many members of family cucubitaceae aren't particularly palatable if you don't cook them.

Several varieties stand out as solid additions to a healthy raw food diet, though.

What types work well?

Summer Squash:

In North America, summer squash is the name for those members of cucubitaceae eaten in an immature state.

The best ones I've found that you can eat raw are yellow squash, crookneck squash, and zucchini.

Winter Squash

Winter squash are eaten in a mature state, and often can last for months if harvested from your garden in late fall and stored in cool wintery conditions.

The best winter squashes for raw recipes I've found are buttercup squash, butternut squash, acorn squash, and my personal favorite, kabocha.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers are technically not squashes, but they are a member of family cucubitaceae. They're a classic raw food, and can be found in salads and many other types of dishes.

What To Do With Raw Squash?

Some raw foodists make soups and elaborate vegetable dishes out of raw squash. Personally, I usually just spiralize them into pasta.

I then add them to salads or eat them as in raw spaghetti recipes with a great raw tomato sauce heaped on top.

Sinfully delicious raw dressings can spice up your salad every night of the week. Don't worry, they're also low fat and incredibly healthy.

Find out how to create amazing salad dressings and sauces from scratch.

Check out Savory Raw Dressings and Sauces!

Some squashes make better pasta substitutes than others. I love the taste of cucumbers, for instance, but because they're so juicy they tend to dilute whatever dressing or sauce you put on them. Zucchini solves the dilution problem with its relative dryness, but the taste isn't quite what I'm looking for.

My personal favorite for spiralizing is kabocha, which is fairly dry and mild in flavor.

I eat pretty simply as a general rule, so these sort of more complicated dishes make great periodic treats for me.

Following Up

Find out how raw squash fits in with the other vegetables that are good to eat on a raw food diet.

Find some great raw food recipes.

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