Sweet golden Kabocha Salad with sliced cucumber, crispy bacon and tossed with creamy Japanese mayo. This beautiful salad could be your new classic on the holiday table.
One of my favorite fall ingredients is kabocha (sometimes called kabocha squash or Japanese pumpkin). I have many kabocha recipes that I want to share with you, but let’s start with this delicious and easy Kabocha Salad.
Watch How To Make Kabocha Salad
Sweet golden kabocha salad with sliced cucumber, crispy bacon, combined with Japanese mayo.
Kabocha Salad – The Japanese’s Fall Time Favorite
Have you tried kabocha before? Kabocha has a dull-finished, deep green skin with an intense yellow-orange flesh. It has a sweet taste, even sweeter than butternut squash, while the texture and flavor is a cross between a pumpkin and a sweet potato.
Japanese love eating kabocha for its many health benefits. It’s high in beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamins B1 and B2, and more. Beta-carotene can be converted to vitamin A in the body and vitamin A is important for healthy white blood cells, good immunity and vibrant eyes, skin and hair. It’s really good stuff! Whenever kabocha is in season, I will rush to the farmers market to pick up one or two to make some of my favorite fall recipes.
A typical kabocha salad includes kabocha, sliced cucumbers, and raisins and that’s how my mom used to make. Sometimes kabocha salad also includes diced onion. Since my husband is not a huge fan of raisins, I replaced raisins with bacon instead. I love the salty flavor of the bacon in the naturally sweet kabocha. The crispy bits of bacon definitely adds another dimension to the typical kabocha salad. You can definitely leave it out for the vegetarian version.
To prepare this salad, the squash is boiled until soft; it is then mashed (some chunks are good) before combining with cucumber slices, bacon (if added) and seasoned with Japanese mayo, salt, and freshly ground pepper. Very simple, yet utterly flavorful.
The slightly creamy and sweet flavor of this Kabocha Salad makes it equally fitting to serve as a side dish for your holiday dinner.
Just a word of caution: Kabocha has really hard skin. It requires a razor-sharp knife and a strong force to cut it open. So just be extra careful when you cut the squash.
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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- 1 lb kabocha (squash/pumpkin) (454 g)
- 1 Persian/Japanese cucumbers (or 1/2 of an English cucumber)
- ¼ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt)
- 2 slices bacon
- 3 Tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
- freshly ground black pepper
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Gather all the ingredients.
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Scoop the kabocha seeds with a spoon and discard them and cut into 1-inch slices.
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Remove the kabocha skin and cut into 1-inch cubes.
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Put the kabocha in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil the kabocha until soft.
- Drain water and mash half of the kabocha. It’s better to leave some big chunks unmashed for texture.
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In a frying pan, cook bacon slices over medium-high heat until crispy. Drain excess oil on the paper towel and then cut into small pieces.
- Partially peel the cucumber lengthwise so that it will look like a stripe pattern and then thinly slice it.
- Put the cucumber slices in a bowl and sprinkle salt. Massage and cucumber and let it stand for 5 minutes. Then squeeze water out.
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Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl. Add mayonnaise and freshly ground black pepper. Mix all together. Serve it cool or at room temperature.
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Enjoy it on the same day, or store in the refrigerator and eat within 24 hours.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Hey, it’s got bacon–I’m in!! 🙂
Hi Linda! Yep, it’s good! Nice savory touch to the sweet potato. 🙂 Thanks for your comment!
Aloha, Nami~
Have had similar kabocha salads at breakfast buffets in Japan, without the bacon, and loved it! Thank you for this recipe to add to the many lovely ones you share. Wish kabocha wasn’t so difficult to cut. . .
Aloha Ryuko! Yeah usually kabocha salad doesn’t include bacon… most recipes uses raisins and I grew up eating that version. Bacon is just my thing. 😀 I know…I can’t help imagining my finger getting chopped off while I cut. 😀
This looks delicious. I love kabocha tempura!!
Thank you Linsey! I love kabocha and sweet potato (satsumaimo) tempura! I fight for the last piece! 😀 Thank you for your comment!
I should try this! They only sell pumpkins around Halloween where i live, so its now or next year^_^
Hi Lava! I hope you still find kabocha to try this! 🙂
I make Japanese Potato Salad all the time and can’t wait to try this Kabocha version! Can we substitute ham for bacon? Or omit it all together? I love the color of the salad!
Hi Donna! Yes, you can use ham or omit completely. Usually raisin is used. You can also replace with yogurt or use half yogurt and half mayo, too. Hope you enjoy this salad! 🙂
Love the taste and texture of kabocha. My kind of salad as who can resist bacon 🙂
Thank you Kit! Yeah bacon in kabocha salad is good one! 🙂
Hi Nami,
I tried this salad last week but the kabocha mash turned out to be rather ‘wet’ (before I add any other ingredients). Could it be possible I boil the kabocha too long?
Hi Po! I think I know why. You might have overcooked and didn’t drain enough, so the extra moisture carried into the bowl when you mash the kabocha. It’s only my best guess, but hope you will try to take out kabocha when a skewer goes through (if it’s not cooked enough it doesn’t even go in). Hope that helps. 🙂
Hello Nami – Greetings from Singapore!
I just made the Kabocha Salad today and thoroughly enjoyed it as well as a couple of the other recipes on your blog. I just want to let you know that I have been tremendously blessed by your generous heart to share your yummy recipes. The steps and directions on your recipes are also very easy to follow for a beginner like me.
Do keep up with the good work! You have made many people (me, my family and my friends) smiling with their satisfied stomachs.
Hello Alana! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this salad and other recipes from my site. Thank you for trying all the dishes! I’m also happy to hear my step-by-step pictures are helpful. It does take extra time and effort o take pictures while cooking, but feedback from readers like you are always so positive that I can’t stop. 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback! xo 🙂
Dear Nami,
Thank you for sharing such a simple recipe! I’m challenging myself to try a new vegetable a week and kabocha was on sale at the local store. 😉
I’m going to try this out tomorrow for dinner! Thanks so much for sharing! <3
Hi Ellie! You’re welcome! I like your challenge! I hope you like kabocha. It’s naturally sweet and delicious! Hope you enjoy(ed) the kabocha salad!
I just tried this recipe and loved it. I didn’t’t have bacon, but I did have raisins. The raisins brought sweetness, but I will try this again with bacon. Thank you for sharing. The flavor and texture of the squash was perfect as a salad 🙂
Hi Oko! So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. Hope you enjoy the salad with bacon next time. 🙂
Hi, the recipe sounds great, but I tried it and ended up with a lot of water without having added any mayonnaise yet.. wonder if it makes a difference that it is an Australian japanese pumpkin? 🙁
Hi Yun! From what you wrote, it seems like either kabocha was overcooked (was it mushy?) or didn’t drain well at Step 4. It shouldn’t be that watery, although I don’t know how’s Australian kabocha is… I wish I can pin point what went wrong, but it’s hard to do so without being there in your kitchen…
This is just as if it is at home in Japan; Thank you Nami for sharing Japanese home cooking in the US.
Hi Tsuneko-san! I’m happy to hear you enjoy my recipes. Thank you for reading my blog! 🙂 xo
How long can you keep the salad? Thx!
Hi Jack! Best to enjoy it on the same day, or within 24 hours. 🙂
I went to Japan last year and my friend’s mom made this for breakfast. I fell in love with it. But I forgot to ask how she made the salad. So glad I came across this recipe. Very easy to make and easy ingredients!!! Thanks a lot for sharing!!!
Hi Luna! I’m so happy to hear you got to try Kabocha Salad and recreated your favorite! Thank you for trying my recipe and for your kind feedback. xo
It seems like I overcooked mine and it’s kind of watery,.is there any way to fix it?
Hi Min! I would let it drain/evaporate as much as I could. If you have a steamer or a steamer rack, that’s another option next time. 🙂
Hi Nami, I live in Germany and kabocha is not easy to find here, so I replaced with red kuri squash which has a similar texture. I made nimono for lunch but since I only had that, it was a bit boring so I used the leftovers for this salad… it was really yummy, I will definitely make it again as it’s a nice change from potato salad! Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Hi Maria! Ohhh that sounds really yummy! I’ve never tasted (or seen?) red kuri squash (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_kuri_squash – for those who don’t know) but I’m super curious to taste it. Thanks for sharing your tip for those who can’t get kabocha. It sounds like it’s a great sub! Thank you for your kind feedback!
Whatever you do, don’t leave out the bacon! Not used to this palette but a tasty dish nonetheless 🙂
Hi Jean! Thank you for your feedback! 🙂
In the Universe grocery store in Aomori, Japan, I get a salad plate that often has a small scoop of kabocha mashed with a bit of the skin. It has a great flavor and I think it might be similar to this recipe for kabocha salad. It doesn’t seem to have added ingredients, maybe a spice and last time I noticed it has something white in it which might be mayonnaise?
This recipe was amazing! Thank you for so many great recipes and ideas! Even though I’m just a beginner, I find that your directions set me up for success. Looking forward to trying many of your other recipes.