Upo (Bottle Gourd) substitute

Best substitute

Chayote (Sayote)

Use the same amount by weight, plus ¼ cup extra water per 2 cups gourd as the upo (bottle gourd) you are replacing

Best for tinola

Different texture

Chayote is the standard swap in Filipino kitchens and holds its cubes better, while zucchini is the closest match in texture and cook time and needs no peeling. Use either one for one by weight. The thing to plan for is water: upo releases a lot of it as it cooks and effectively lightens and extends the broth, so if you swap in chayote you should add about a quarter cup of water or broth per two cups of gourd, and if you swap in zucchini you should cut the cooking time roughly in half or it will collapse into mush.

Other upo (bottle gourd) substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Zucchini
Close match
Use the same amount by weight, cooking time cut roughly in half
The best supermarket answer and the closest in eating quality.
What changes
Peel it if you want the same pale look, or leave the skin on and accept green flecks in the broth.
Best for
ginisang upo, tinola, misua soup, sauteed dishes, lauki curries
Very close in softness and water content, but it cooks much faster, going tender in five to six minutes where upo takes ten to twelve, so added at the same time it will disintegrate. Slightly grassier and more assertively vegetal than upo, which is almost neutral, and the seeds are more noticeable.
3Winter Melon (Fuzzy Melon or Ash Gourd)
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Botanically a close relative and functionally almost the same vegetable.
What changes
Available at most Chinese and Southeast Asian groceries, often sold in wedges cut from a very large melon.
Best for
tinola, soups, braises, long-simmered dishes, sweet gourd desserts
Nearly indistinguishable once cooked, going soft and translucent in the same way, and it releases a similar amount of water so the broth behaves correctly with no adjustment. It is a shade blander and holds up slightly better to long simmering, which makes it marginally better than upo for a soup that sits on the stove.
4Green Papaya (Unripe)
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, add 5 minutes to the cooking time
The other traditional tinola vegetable, so it is not really a compromise at all in that dish, just a different regional version.
What changes
Peel, seed and cube it.
Best for
tinola, chicken binakol, soups, monggo
Firmer and slower to soften, staying pleasantly toothsome where upo goes silky, and it carries a faint resinous, slightly bitter green note that upo does not have. It also holds its shape almost indefinitely in a hot pot, which makes it the better choice for leftovers.
5Yellow Summer Squash or Pattypan
Close match
Use the same amount by weight, cooking time cut roughly in half
Behaves essentially like zucchini and is worth mentioning separately because it is often cheaper and its paler flesh looks more like upo in a clear broth.
What changes
Best for
ginisang upo, misua soup, sauteed dishes, light soups
Softer and slightly sweeter than zucchini, and it turns to mush even faster, so add it in the last five minutes. The looser texture actually mimics cooked upo well, but it will not survive being reheated.
6Cucumber, Peeled and Seeded
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, added in the last 3 minutes only
A genuine last resort, and only in soup.
What changes
Use a large field cucumber rather than a thin-skinned one, peel it, scrape out the watery seed core, and cut thick half moons.
Best for
clear soups when nothing else is available
It looks right and it is watery like upo, but cucumber turns slippery and faintly slimy when simmered, and it keeps a raw cucumber perfume that reads as odd in a chicken soup. Add it at the very end and treat it as filler, not as flavor. Do not attempt it in a sauteed dish, where it will weep and steam rather than fry.

What is Upo (Bottle Gourd)?

Upo (Bottle Gourd) is a pale green, mild, very watery summer gourd, also sold as opo squash, calabash, lauki or dudhi, whose soft white flesh turns translucent and almost melting when cooked, so its job in a dish is bulk, moisture and a light sweetness rather than any strong flavour of its own.

Cooking tips

Taste a raw sliver before you cook any bottle gourd. Occasionally an upo or lauki turns intensely bitter from naturally high cucurbitacin, and bitter bottle gourd is genuinely unsafe to eat, causing severe stomach upset. If it tastes bitter, throw the whole gourd out rather than trying to cook the bitterness away. This is standard advice for lauki and dudhi in Indian kitchens and applies equally to upo.
Salt upo late, not early. It is mostly water, and salting it at the start of a saute pulls that water straight out, so the gourd boils in its own liquid instead of browning. Season after the flesh has turned translucent.
Peel it, but only just. The skin is thin and edible when the gourd is young, but it toughens as it matures and turns leathery in soup, so take a thin layer off with a peeler rather than cutting deep.
Cut it larger than you think you need to. Upo shrinks noticeably and softens fast, so inch-thick pieces hold their shape while half-inch dice tend to vanish into the broth. This is the main reason homemade ginisang upo comes out watery.
Do not plan on leftovers. Cooked upo continues to soften and leach water in the refrigerator, so a soup that was perfect at dinner is a thin, mushy soup at lunch. Chayote or green papaya are the better choices if you are cooking ahead.

Frequently asked questions

Is upo the same as lauki, dudhi, opo squash or calabash?

Yes, they are all the same vegetable, Lagenaria siceraria, under different names. Upo is the Filipino name, lauki and dudhi are the common Indian names, opo squash is the usual North American grocery label, and calabash is the older English name. Recipes for ginisang upo, lauki sabzi and dudhi curry are all using the identical gourd, which means a substitute that works for one works for all of them.

Can I just leave upo out?

In a soup like tinola or misua, yes, but you will need something in its place because upo is doing real work as bulk and as a source of liquid. Without any gourd, tinola is essentially chicken in ginger broth, which is fine but thin. Chayote, zucchini or even a handful of green beans keeps the balance. In ginisang upo, where the gourd is the dish, there is nothing to leave out.

Why is my upo dish so watery?

Because upo is around ninety-five percent water and it lets almost all of it go when heated. The fixes are mechanical rather than clever: cut the pieces bigger, cook the aromatics and any meat fully before the gourd goes in, do not cover the pan during a saute, salt at the end, and if it is still loose, lift the gourd out and reduce the liquid for a couple of minutes before returning it. Swapping to chayote is the reliable structural fix.

Is zucchini or chayote the better substitute for upo?

It depends which failure you would rather have. Zucchini matches the soft, silky, translucent quality of cooked upo almost exactly, so it is better for eating quality, but it overcooks quickly and does not survive reheating. Chayote is firmer and less like upo in the mouth, but it holds its shape, keeps well and does not turn a soup watery. For a soup eaten straight away, use zucchini; for anything cooked ahead, use chayote.

Do I use bottle gourd seeds, and what about the very large ones?

In a young gourd the seeds are soft, pale and perfectly edible, so cube the whole thing. Once the gourd is large and mature the seed core turns spongy and the seeds go hard, and at that point scrape the core out with a spoon and use only the firm outer flesh. Very large bottle gourds are also more likely to be bitter, so the taste test matters more with them.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Upo (Bottle Gourd) substitute

Other upo (bottle gourd) substitutes

2Zucchini

3Winter Melon (Fuzzy Melon or Ash Gourd)

4Green Papaya (Unripe)

5Yellow Summer Squash or Pattypan

6Cucumber, Peeled and Seeded