What variety of squash produces “flor de calabaza”?

Question

In Mexico, flor de calabaza is sometimes served on quesadillas, in soups, or in other dishes. The literal translation of flor de calabaza is "flower of pumpkin/zucchini/squash". As calabaza is a rather broad term in Spanish, I don't really know specifically what kind of flower(s) are used for this.

I'm interested in cooking with some of this myself, and am happy to grow the squash plants in my yard, but which type of squash plants shall I grow? Or are various varieties of squash equally suitable for the harvesting of their flowers?

Asked by Flimzy

Answer

They're commonly called squash blossoms in English - as you might guess, this is because it doesn't matter too much what kind of squash they're from. They'll most commonly be from smaller summer squash plants (e.g. zucchini) though, since they produce many small squash instead of a few large squash (like pumpkins), so you can get more blossoms for your trouble.

Answered by Jefromi

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