The Pale Green Squash Guadeloupe Calls Christophine

There is a vegetable in every market in Guadeloupe that British visitors pick up, turn over in their hand, and put back down. Pale green. Shaped like a pear that sat on something. Deep folds running from top to bottom, like a mouth closed tight.

That is chayote. At home we never called it that. In my mother’s kitchen it was christophine, and on a Sunday it came out of the oven as a gratin, golden on top, soft and sweet underneath, and nobody at the table thought of it as a “vegetable side”. It was the part of the meal you fought your cousins for.

Here in the UK people ask me about chayote more than almost anything else I cook with. What is it, what does it taste like, how do you eat it, why does it make your hands sticky. So here is everything I know, from the market to the plate.

What is a chayote?

A chayote is the edible fruit of a climbing vine in the gourd family, the same family as squash, cucumber and courgette. It is green, pear-shaped and furrowed, usually 7.5 to 10 cm long, with one flat seed inside. In the kitchen it is cooked like a vegetable: mild, crisp when raw and soft when cooked.

Its botanical name is Sechium edule. The plant is a fast-growing perennial vine that climbs with tendrils, and each fruit holds a single large, flattened seed in the middle of its pale flesh.

Where chayote comes from, and what the word means

Chayote is from Mesoamerica. It was first cultivated between southern Mexico and Honduras, and Mexico and Guatemala still hold the greatest variety of it. From there it travelled across the tropics, which is why so many islands and countries have their own name for it.

The chayote meaning people search for is simple: the word is Spanish, taken from the Nahuatl word chayohtli. Nahuatl is a language of central Mexico, where the plant comes from.

Christophine, chocho, mirliton: one vegetable, many names

This is where it gets confusing in a British shop, because the same vegetable wears a different name depending on who is selling it.

• Christophine (or christophene) in the French Antilles, the eastern Caribbean and French Guiana. You will see this spelling in the UK and Ireland too.
• Chocho in Jamaica. If you have ever wondered what chocho is, it is this exact vegetable.
• Mirliton in Haiti and Louisiana.
• Chouchou in Réunion and Mauritius.
• Choko in Australia and New Zealand.

So if a recipe from Kingston asks for chocho and a recipe from Pointe-à-Pitre asks for christophine, you are buying the same thing. If you are curious about how our Creole names for food work more generally, I wrote about the words you hear in the kitchen in my piece on the Guadeloupe Creole language.

What does chayote taste like?

Honestly, very little on its own, and that is the point. Raw, it has a mild flavour somewhere between cucumber and apple, with a clean crunch. Cooked, it tastes like a gentle cooked cucumber or courgette. The texture is often described as a cross between a potato and a cucumber, which is exactly right: firm, juicy, never mealy.

That mildness is why christophine works so well in Creole cooking. It takes on whatever you give it. Butter, garlic, herbs, a little heat. It does not fight the sauce. It carries it.

How to cook chayote, and how to eat it raw

Most people only eat the fruit, but the root, stems, seeds and leaves of the plant are all edible. In Réunion the young shoots are sautéed as greens, and the root can be cut into sticks and fried like potatoes. You will not find those in a London shop, so let us stay with the fruit.

Raw. Young, tender chayote can be sliced very thin or grated into salads. This is how a green christophine is usually eaten at home, cool and crisp, dressed with something sharp.

Boiled or steamed. Halve it, cook it in salted water until a knife slides in, then scoop out the flesh. This is the first step of the gratin.

Sautéed. Peel, cut into batons, and cook in a hot pan with butter and garlic until just tender. A few minutes. Keep some bite.

Baked. Stuffed back into its own shell, or mashed into a gratin dish with béchamel and cheese.

Can you eat a whole chayote? Almost. The skin can be eaten when the chayote is young and tender. The seed can be cooked too, and it tastes somewhere between a butter bean and an almond. Older chayote have tougher skin, so peel those.

Should you peel chayote? A warning about the sap

Here is the thing nobody tells you until your palms feel like they are wrapped in glue. When you peel a raw chayote, it releases a sticky sap that can irritate the skin on your hands. Wet hands scrubbed with a little salt will clear it, but it is better to avoid it.

Three easy ways round it: wear kitchen gloves, rub a little oil on your hands first, or peel it under cold running water. Or do what we do for the gratin: cook it in its skin first and scoop out the soft flesh afterwards. No sap, no fuss.

How Guadeloupe cooks christophine

The Guadeloupe market rule is simple. Green and young, christophine goes into a salad. Ripe, it goes into a gratin. That second one, gratin de christophine, is the dish every French Caribbean family knows, loved for its sweetness and its creaminess.

The way I make it follows the classic method. Halve the christophines and boil them for about 20 minutes. Let them cool, scoop out the flesh, and mash it. Mix it with a béchamel, or with cream and a spoon of flour, plus garlic, a little onion and some herbs. Spread it in a dish, cover with grated cheese, and bake until the top is golden and bubbling.

Some families pile the mixture back into the empty shells before baking, so each person gets their own half. That is how I serve it when I want it to look like a celebration.

It sits next to fish in court-bouillon, next to a stew, next to anything with a sauce. If you want to see what else ends up on the table with it, my guide to Guadeloupean food walks through what we actually eat day to day.

Where to buy chayote in the UK, and how to choose one

Look for both names on the label: chayote and christophene. I find them most easily in Caribbean, Latin American and Asian grocers and on market stalls in areas with a big Caribbean community.

Pick small, firm chayote with no soft patches or blemishes. You want firm, but not rock hard. At home, keep them in a bag in the fridge, where they will last around four weeks. That makes them one of the most forgiving vegetables you can buy.

A green christophine salad with Fresh Herbal Sauce

When I want the raw, crunchy side of chayote, this is what I make. It is the closest thing to the market salads I grew up with.

Take two young chayote. Peel them under running water, cut out the seed, and slice them into fine matchsticks or grate them coarsely. Add one small red onion, sliced very thin, and a handful of chopped flat herbs if you have them.

Then dress it with a spoon or two of our Fresh Herbal Sauce. It is made from shallots with basil, coriander, white wine vinegar and a little French mustard, so it brings the sharp, green, herby side that a mild vegetable like chayote needs. It is well salted, so taste before you add any more salt. There is no chilli in it, which makes it a good place to start for people who do not like heat.

Leave it ten minutes so the chayote softens a little in the dressing. Serve it next to grilled fish, or next to my mother’s callaloo on a cold British evening, when you need a reminder of where the sun is.

FAQ

What is chayote in English? Chayote is already used as its English name, along with “chayote squash”. In the UK and the eastern Caribbean you will also see it sold as christophine or christophene, and in Jamaica it is called chocho.

What is chocho? Chocho is the Jamaican name for chayote. It is the same pale green, pear-shaped vegetable, and you can cook it in all the same ways.

Should you peel chayote? Older chayote should be peeled because the skin gets tough; young ones can be eaten with the skin on. Peel under running water or with gloves, because the raw sap can irritate your hands.

How do you tell if a chayote is ripe? Choose small, firm chayote with smooth, unblemished skin. In Guadeloupe the younger green ones are eaten raw in salads and the riper ones are baked in a gratin.

Can you eat chayote raw? Yes. Young, tender chayote can be sliced thin or grated into salads, and it has a mild cucumber and apple flavour with a fresh crunch.

One small thing to try this week

Buy one chayote. Just one. Cut it in half, boil it for 20 minutes, scoop out the flesh, and mash it with a knob of butter, black pepper and a little grated cheese. Put it under the grill until the cheese bubbles.

That is the gratin in its smallest form, and it is how I would introduce anyone to christophine. Mild, creamy, a little sweet. If you like it, next time make the full dish for the table.

And if you already know chocho from a Jamaican kitchen, try it the French Caribbean way and tell me which you prefer.

JP