Grub Guides

13 Spectacular Squash Dishes You’ll Want to Eat Right Now

Barbuto's gnocchi with delicata squash.
Barbuto’s gnocchi with delicata squash. Photo: Courtesy of Barbuto

It’s time to stop mourning the loss of tomatoes, corn, and blueberries from the farmers’ market and start embracing the array of squash varieties. New York chefs are one step ahead of you: Sweet, nutty squash dishes are on menus all over town, featuring delicata, butternut, acorn, kabocha, and pumpkin. What’s nice about squash is that it can lean savory, sweet, or somewhere in between, so you’ll often see it paired with brown butter, ricotta, or maple syrup — which is exactly what you want to eat this time of year. We’ve rounded up 13 special dishes featuring the seasonal vegetable, straight ahead.

Haw Mok Phukk Tong
Where: Uncle Boons
Price: $10
This kabocha-squash-and-red-curry custard, with kaffir-lime leaf and pumpkin seeds, has the consistency of pumpkin pie.

Tempura of Delicata Squash
Where: Perilla
Price: $10
Think of this as a fancy version of onion rings — plus radicchio slaw, cayenne, and maple crème fraîche.

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad
Where: Colonia Verde
Price: $14
This layered, warm salad also includes fried oyster mushrooms, feta cheese, chopped mint, toasted pumpkin seeds, and a rosemary balsamic dressing.

Delicata Squash in Brown-Butter Vinaigrette
Where: Vic’s
Price: $9
Before you dive into burrata pizza, order Hillary Sterling’s simple starter, which she tops with balsamic bread crumbs.

Gnocchi e Zucca
Where: Barbuto
Price: $19
What goes well with perfect roast chicken? Pasta, of course. New to the menu is a rich potato-dumpling dish with sweet delicata squash and walnut pesto.

Warm Autumn Vegetables
Where: Hearth
Price: $29
Here’s a nice vegetable-centric entree: a variety of squashes and sweet potato get mixed with maple vinaigrette and a smear of buckwheat-honey ricotta studded with pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin & Cucumber
Where: Acme
Price: $14
To make this unusual, semi-sweet dessert, chef Mads Refslund pairs pumpkin and cucumber with yogurt foam, frozen mint, pumpkin seeds, and a pumpkin-cucumber granita. It’s all served in a sugar pumpkin.

Acme's pumpkin dessert.
Acme’s pumpkin dessert. Photo: Signe Birck

Roasted Delicata Squash
Where: The Cleveland
Price: $12
Honeyed peanuts and labne are the perfect accompaniments to roasted delicata squash. And for dessert, don’t miss the warm doughnut, with pumpkin curd, lavender, and maple-walnut gelato.

Pumpkin Breakfast Toast
Where: Nourish Kitchen & Table
Price: $8
This breakfast item is piled high with Salvatore Bklyn ricotta, sesame halvah, and toasted pecans. Plus: On the weekends, you’ll find an excellent butternut-squash galette with a rye crust.

Autumn Salad
Where: Blue Ribbon Brooklyn
Price: $14
Chef Martin Brock pickles butternut squash, and then adds watercress, radicchio, caramelized walnuts, and goat cheese.

Roasted Squash & Ricotta Ravioli
Where: Lafayette
Price: $23
This seasonal pasta — with apple mustard and sage — won’t be on the menu for long.

Sweet Baked Squash
Where: GG’s
Price: $18
A strong choice for a vegetarian entree: squash cooked in the pizza oven with goat cheese, arugula, and beets.

Roasted Heirloom Squash Salad
Where: Cherche Midi
Price: $17
It’s the fresh, creamy cow’s-milk cheese that makes this salad — with mizuna and hard-cider vinaigrette — stand out among a meal of prime-rib burgers and foie gras.

Spectacular New Squash Dishes