POLL: Do you peel yellow summer squash?

[Robin Garr]

Mary and I have one of our very rare arguments - okay, disagreements - over this. I say it's ridiculous to peel yellow summer squash because the yellow part is not merely fully edible but tasty. She doesn't exactly deny this, but says it's better to peel it. Ridiculous, say I!

But I promised her that I would solicit the opinions of my foodie pals on FLDG, so let's hear it: Do YOU peel yellow summer squash? Vote in the poll, and discuss.

Never!! If I have BIG zucchini, I peel them before grating to make zucchini bread. I don't make it - my mother-in-law does, but I grate it for her.

I have never considered peeling either yellow squash or zucchini. I make a mix of veggies either baked or grilled in foil and the different colors make it pretty. I use various combinations of zucchini and yellow squash, all colors of peppers, onions, sweet potatoes and sometimes eggplant.

Never even knew that people would peel yellow squash until now.

Never and nope.

Never heard of it.

Peel vegetables? Hardly ever.

(or is squash one of those fruits that are vegetables?)

Never. What's the advantage?

Never heard of it.

Ditto.

Yup. Cook em with the skin on and eat them out of the skin, ergo in effect peeling them, I suppose.

Don't peel any of the thin skinned kind like yellow zucchini, but do 'peel' the ones with thicker skins.

[Robin Garr]

Yup. Cook em with the skin on and eat them out of the skin, ergo in effect peeling them, I suppose.

Don't peel any of the thin skinned kind like yellow zucchini, but do 'peel' the ones with thicker skins.

SUMMER squash? A regional difference, maybe, but what I call summer squash fairly closely resembles zucchini, but with more of a bowling-pin shape. I've never seen one with a skin thick enough to require peeling. Unless you're my wife.

If it is thin and easily edible we eats em. If it is thicker (as some around here are) we peels em.

Summer squash includes:

[Robin Garr]

If it is thin and easily edible we eats em. If it is thicker (as some around here are) we peels em.

Eeeeuuuwww, it must be that cold Canadian weather ... that squash looks like it's wearing a rubberized raincoat! It also looks as winter-squash to me as that pumpkin-like thing behind it.

Anyway, to clarify, I'm talking about the only kind of "yellow summe squash" I ever see around here, which has a light yellow skin so thin that it's almost as if it were painted on.

Recently my favorite use of yellow summer squash has been in "Happiness Soup."

If you Google the name, you will find recipes. Everything in it is yellow, and Nigella Lawson strictly forbids peeling the squash, because the skin contributes to the yellow-ness of the soup. Highly recommended and rather unusual. Squash with rice, turmeric, and lemon.

I will admit that when I cook with zucchini I often follow Lidia Bastianich and "zebra" them before slicing. In other words you use a peeler to make more or less equal stripes of peeled and un-peeled. This gives you the taste and texture of the peel without letting it be too much.

I answered "never" to the poll because it specified yellow squash.

Frank

Robin, besides bitter melon, our local produce place carries some green summer squash variants that have equally wrinkled exteriors. They do cook up soft, however.

Eeeeuuuwww, it must be that cold Canadian weather ... that squash looks like it's wearing a rubberized raincoat! It also looks as winter-squash to me as that pumpkin-like thing behind it.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_crookneck_squash And that is a pumpkin behind it.

I can't see the purpose of peeling yellow squash or any squash for that matter. The flesh inside is delicate and I always felt the skin held it all together during cooking.

this dumbfounds me. how would you eat a summer squash or zuch out of its skin? i mean it isn't as if it were like an eggplant which really does have a hard skin that you might scrape something out of. ??????

If you're talking about yellow summer squash as in pattycake squash, no. Nor do I peel the green stuff.
If you're talking about yellow summer squash as in crookneck squash, no.
If you're talking about yellow summer squash as in yellow Italian squash, no.

Nor do I peel zucchini. Of course I don't buy the giant "vegetable marrow" kind of zucchini. If it's more than 8" long it's too big.

This time of year I sometimes think I'll get squashed to death.

John

This time of year I sometimes think I'll get squashed to death.

Neighbors, man, neighbors! Do you have any neighbors you can give squash to?

Growing up in the rural South, I never knew anyone to peel a summer squash.

Mary and I have one of our very rare arguments - okay, disagreements - over this. I say it's ridiculous to peel yellow summer squash because the yellow part is not merely fully edible but tasty. She doesn't exactly deny this, but says it's better to peel it. Ridiculous, say I!

But I promised her that I would solicit the opinions of my foodie pals on FLDG, so let's hear it: Do YOU peel yellow summer squash? Vote in the poll, and discuss.

I dunno, Robin. Is using the forum to settle your marital disagreements a good thing? Who knows where it might lead..

Sorry, Mary, but I'm with Robin on this one. Heck, I don't even peel bitter melon. Thomas, I'm surprised you don't often peel vegetables - I do a lot - what about things like potatoes, carrots, onions, swedes, parsnips etc ?

Celia

A picture of the yellow squash I eat.

http://www.parkseed.com/product_images/5849.jpg

nope - we don't peel it either.