What Squash Is Most Like Sweet Potatoes for Taste and Texture?

December 30, 2025 •

3 min read

Native Americans introduced early European settlers to squash, and today, one of the most beloved varieties, delicata, has earned the nickname 'sweet potato squash'. If you're looking for what squash is most like sweet potatoes, you'll find that several winter squashes offer a similar flavor and texture profile, making them excellent culinary stand-ins.

Quick Summary

Delicata squash is the most similar to sweet potatoes due to its honey-sweet flavor and creamy texture. Butternut and Kabocha also offer good alternatives.

Key Points

Delicata Squash is the closest: Known as 'sweet potato squash', delicata offers a honey-sweet flavor and creamy, velvety texture with a delicate, edible skin.
Butternut Squash is highly versatile: With a sweet, nutty flavor and creamy flesh, it's an excellent substitute for purees, soups, and roasting.
Kabocha Squash has a unique flavor: This dense, Japanese squash tastes like a mix of sweet potato and pumpkin, holding its shape well in stews and roasted dishes.
Sweet Dumpling is great for individual portions: This small, compact squash is similar in taste to sweet potatoes and is ideal for stuffing and baking.
Consider the preparation: Delicata's thin, edible skin simplifies preparation, while butternut and kabocha require peeling for most applications.

The Top Contender: Delicata Squash

Often nicknamed "sweet potato squash" for good reason, delicata squash offers the most comparable experience to sweet potatoes in both flavor and texture. Its oblong shape and distinctive cream-colored skin with green stripes are easy to identify. Once cooked, the flesh becomes incredibly sweet, creamy, and velvety, similar to a perfectly baked sweet potato.

Why Delicata is the Closest Match

Flavor Profile: With a delicate, honey-sweet flavor, delicata can often be used in recipes that call for sweet potatoes without needing much, if any, additional seasoning.
Texture: The cooked flesh is smooth and creamy, lacking the stringiness that some other squashes can have. This makes it ideal for mashing, roasting, or pureeing, just like a sweet potato.
Ease of Preparation: Unlike most hard-skinned winter squashes, delicata has a thin, edible skin. This eliminates the tedious process of peeling, saving time and effort in the kitchen.

Other Great Alternatives with Similar Profiles

While delicata may be the closest match, several other winter squashes also offer delicious similarities that make them great substitutes depending on the recipe.

Butternut Squash

Butternut squash is an incredibly popular and versatile choice. It has a classic nutty, sweet flavor and a creamy orange flesh that works wonderfully in many applications. It is particularly well-suited for soups and purees due to its smooth consistency when cooked. However, its moisture content is higher than delicata or sweet potatoes, which may require slight recipe adjustments.

Kabocha Squash

Also known as Japanese pumpkin, kabocha is a squat, round squash with a dark green rind. Its flavor is a unique and pleasing cross between sweet potato and pumpkin, with a remarkably sweet and nutty taste. The texture is dense and firm, allowing it to hold its shape well, making it great for tempura, stews, and roasted dishes.

Sweet Dumpling Squash

This small, compact squash has a similar texture and sweetness to sweet potatoes. Its size makes it perfect for stuffing and baking as individual servings. The skin is also edible, and its flavor is often compared to corn and sweet potatoes.

Comparison: Squash vs. Sweet Potatoes

To help you decide which is best for your needs, here is a breakdown of how these popular squash varieties compare to sweet potatoes.


Feature	Sweet Potato	Delicata Squash	Butternut Squash	Kabocha Squash
Flavor Profile	Very sweet, earthy	Honey-sweet, nutty	Sweet, nutty	Sweet, nutty, pumpkin-like
Texture	Dense, creamy, starchy	Velvety, creamy, tender	Creamy, smooth (can be slightly watery)	Dense, firm, smooth
Skin	Inedible (unless roasted very thin)	Edible, delicate	Inedible (tough)	Inedible (though some recipes leave it)
Preparation	Requires peeling, baking, or boiling	No peeling needed; roasting is simple	Requires peeling, great for soups	Peeling is difficult; great for roasting chunks

How to Use Squash as a Sweet Potato Substitute

Swapping squash for sweet potatoes is straightforward. For roasted dishes, any of the aforementioned squashes will work well. For example, you can use roasted delicata slices as a side dish or add roasted kabocha cubes to a salad. For mashed or pureed recipes, butternut squash is an easy 1:1 substitute, though delicata will produce a slightly less watery result. For baking, butternut or kabocha can be used in place of sweet potato puree in pies, muffins, or bread. For more inspiration on incorporating these delicious substitutes into your cooking, check out this guide on different types of winter squash and their uses.

Conclusion

When asking what squash is most like sweet potatoes, the answer is undoubtedly delicata, thanks to its exceptional sweetness, creamy texture, and thin, edible skin. However, butternut and kabocha squash are also fantastic options, offering similar qualities with their own unique flavor nuances. By understanding the distinct characteristics of each, you can choose the perfect squash to complement your recipe and enjoy a similar taste and texture to sweet potatoes in a variety of dishes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Delicata squash tastes the most like a sweet potato, which is why it is often called "sweet potato squash." It has a naturally honey-sweet and creamy flavor when cooked.

Yes, you can substitute butternut squash for sweet potatoes in many recipes. Butternut offers a similar creamy texture and sweet flavor, making it a good choice for mashes, soups, and purees.

No, you do not need to peel delicata squash. Its skin is thin and edible when cooked, which makes preparation incredibly easy and convenient.

Yes, kabocha squash is a good alternative. It has a slightly different but equally appealing sweet, nutty flavor with hints of pumpkin, and a dense, firm texture that holds up well in dishes.

When cooked, delicata squash has a velvety, creamy, and tender texture. It is smooth and lacks the fibrous strands found in some other squash varieties.

Both sweet potatoes and most winter squashes are very nutritious, offering good sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The specific nutritional profile varies by variety, but both are considered healthy additions to a diet.

Delicata squash is widely considered the easiest to prepare because its thin, edible skin means you don't have to peel it. You simply slice, season, and roast.