Winter Melon substitute

Best substitute

Chayote Squash

Use the same amount by weight as the winter melon you are replacing

Best for canh bi dao and clear soups

Close match

The closest match and easy to find in Latin and Asian groceries. Cooked, it is pale, mild and slightly sweet with a firm crisp-tender bite that holds up better than winter melon, so the cubes stay intact in a long simmer instead of going translucent and slumping. Flavour difference is tiny, a hint more green and grassy.

Other winter melon substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Zucchini, Peeled and Seeded
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The everyday supermarket answer.
What changes
Peel it and scrape out the seedy core and the remaining flesh is pale and mild and looks right in the bowl. The real difference is timing: zucchini goes from firm to mush in about five minutes where winter melon takes twenty, so added at the same point in the recipe it will disintegrate. It is also a touch more grassy and holds less broth.
Best for
quick weeknight canh, soups you are eating immediately, stir-fries
Add it in the last five minutes only, cut into chunks at least an inch thick. Do not skip the peeling, because the dark green skin makes a clear soup look muddy.
3Opo Squash or Bottle Gourd
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Almost the same eating experience, from the same family.
What changes
It is pale, watery, faintly sweet and turns soft and translucent exactly the way winter melon does, and it comes in a manageable size, which is often the real reason people are looking for a substitute. If your grocery has it, this is arguably a better buy than winter melon itself.
Best for
canh bi dao, clear soups, Indian and Filipino gourd dishes, smaller households
Sold as opo, bottle gourd, lauki, doodhi or upo. Taste a raw sliver first and discard the whole gourd if it is bitter, which occasionally happens and means it is not good to eat.
4Daikon Radish
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Right texture, different personality.
What changes
Simmered long enough daikon goes soft and translucent just like winter melon and drinks up broth beautifully, but it brings a distinct peppery radish bite and a faintly sulphurous smell that winter melon does not have. In a pork rib soup that is welcome and traditional in its own right, in a delicate chicken broth it dominates.
Best for
pork bone and rib soups, long-simmered broths, braises, Japanese and Chinese soups
Give it twenty-five to thirty minutes, longer than winter melon needs, because undercooked daikon is sharp and hard. A pinch of sugar in the broth softens the peppery edge.
5Large Cucumber, Peeled and Seeded
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Sounds wrong, works well, and is done in Vietnamese kitchens.
What changes
A peeled English or field cucumber simmered briefly turns soft and translucent with a clean cool sweetness, quite close to winter melon in a bowl. It is more watery, so it thins the broth slightly, and it will collapse entirely if you cook it more than a few minutes.
Best for
quick clear soups, canh with pork or shrimp, when the only gourd in the shop is a cucumber
Cut it into thick half-moons and add it for the last three or four minutes. Scoop out the seeds, which turn slimy and separate from the flesh in hot broth.
6Not This: Butternut, Kabocha or Other Sweet Winter Squash
Taste and texture differ
not recommended
Worth flagging because the name winter melon invites the mistake.
What changes
Butternut, kabocha, acorn and pumpkin are sweet, dense and starchy, they thicken and cloud a broth as they cook, and they turn a clean savoury canh into something closer to a sweet vegetable soup. Nothing about their flavour or their behaviour resembles winter melon.
Best for
nothing here
If squash is genuinely all you have, chayote, zucchini, opo, cucumber and daikon are all better choices, and so is simply making a different soup.

What is Winter Melon?

Winter Melon is a very large pale-fleshed gourd, sold as bi dao in Vietnamese shops, wax gourd in Chinese ones and ash gourd or petha in Indian ones, that simmers down to soft translucent cubes with almost no flavour of its own, so its job in a soup is to add substance and soak up the broth.

Cooking tips

Cut the rind off generously with a knife rather than a peeler, going deep enough to remove the pale hard layer under the skin. That layer never softens and it is why some people find winter melon unpleasantly tough.
Scrape out the seeds and the spongy core with a spoon. The core cooks to a stringy mush that clouds an otherwise clear broth.
Cut it into pieces at least an inch thick. Thin slices dissolve, and part of the pleasure of canh bi dao is a soft chunk that still holds together on the spoon.
Because winter melon has essentially no flavour, it is the broth that has to be right. In a Vietnamese canh that means good pork or chicken stock and fish sauce added at the end, not more of the melon.
Shops sell it in huge wedges cut to order, so you can buy a pound rather than a whole gourd. Wrapped tightly, a cut wedge keeps about five days in the fridge and the cut face goes slimy before the rest does, so trim it before using.

Frequently asked questions

What does winter melon taste like?

Very little, and that is the point. Cooked, it is mild and faintly sweet with a clean vegetal note, somewhere between a cooked cucumber and a very mild summer squash. It exists to take on the flavour of the broth around it and to add soft translucent bulk, which is why a nearly flavourless vegetable can be the star of a soup.

Can I use zucchini instead of winter melon?

Yes, and it is the most practical swap in an ordinary supermarket. Peel it, scrape out the seedy centre and cut it into thick chunks. The one thing you must change is timing: add it in the final five minutes rather than simmering it for twenty, or it will fall apart. It is slightly grassier than winter melon and holds a bit less broth.

Is winter melon the same as winter squash?

No, despite the name. Winter melon is a pale, watery, almost flavourless gourd used in savoury soups, and it is called winter melon because it keeps well through winter rather than because it resembles butternut or pumpkin. Sweet winter squashes are dense and starchy and will make a soup sweet and cloudy. Chayote or opo squash are the right family of substitutes.

Can I leave the winter melon out of canh bi dao?

Not really, since it is the entire vegetable in the soup and the dish is named after it. What you can do is swap it for chayote, opo, peeled zucchini, daikon or peeled cucumber, all of which give you the same soft broth-soaked chunks. If you have none of those, make a different canh with cabbage or bok choy rather than serving a bowl of plain broth.

Is ash gourd the same as winter melon?

Yes. Ash gourd, petha, wax gourd, bi dao and dong gua are all names for the same vegetable, called ash or wax gourd for the pale powdery bloom on a mature skin. An Indian recipe calling for ash gourd and a Vietnamese one calling for bi dao want the same thing from the same market bin.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Winter Melon substitute

Other winter melon substitutes

2Zucchini, Peeled and Seeded

3Opo Squash or Bottle Gourd

4Daikon Radish

5Large Cucumber, Peeled and Seeded

6Not This: Butternut, Kabocha or Other Sweet Winter Squash