Winter Squash Soup

I was so excited to find a recipe (Barefoot in Paris) for butternut squash soup that did not call for curry.  This was a good use for the remainder of the large can of pumpkin that I cracked open for the pumpkin roulade.  The end result was excellent, and I’ll make it again, but it made an impressive mess of the kitchen.  Also, I doubled the cooking time (from 20 minutes to 40) for the butternut squash.  In the future, I would add the chicken stock and the butternut squash together and let them simmer for 20 minutes, and then add the pumpkin for the remaining 20 minutes.  I don’t know what kind of butternut squash can cook by simmering for 20 minutes, but all that I’ve encountered are as hard as my kitchen counter and take a little longer to soften.

In the end, though, the soup was a hit, and I’m going to use it when we get all those weird squashes and pumpkins from our CSA in the fall.

Also, a note on onions.  I have a strong distaste for raw onions (in my food or on your breath), but the sauteed onions that begin most of these soup recipes are essential.  They give the soup a flavor that, if eliminated, would leave them flat and lacking.  Also, I’m hearing all kinds of news about how good onions and garlic are for our health.  I would say that an onion-hater would probably not even detect their presence in a soup like this (especially if sweet yellow onions are used), and they make a huge difference in the end result.

Mashed Butternut Squash

This recipe (Barefoot Contessa Family Style) wasn’t really a disappointment, but it wasn’t anything spectacular, either.  I think I prefer the other butternut squash incarnations we’ve tried recently, which start out in the same way (roasting chunks of peeled butternut squash), but do not end with mashing.

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette

This recipe (Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics) is the type of recipe that made me want to start this project.  It’s simple, it’s healthy, and it contains ingredients that we like.  But before this project, I would have admired the picture, taken note of the ingredients, thought, “I should really make that sometime,” and then the time would never come.  It’s not that we don’t eat salad, it’s just that I get into the routine of making the same kind of salad every time, so we get into ruts.  The challenge I’ve had lately is to really focus on these great winter vegetables without over-doing any one thing until we get tired of it.  Butternut squash, for example, plays a large role on the pages of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks.  We love it, but if we eat it more than once or twice a week, we’ll turn orange, and we’ll never want to see another squash again.  So, spacing things out has been key, while still putting a heavy emphasis on seasonal vegetables.  Because really, it would be kind of silly to be roasting a butternut squash in July.  I used apple juice instead of apple cider in the dressing (a substitution suggested in the recipe itself).  The parmesan was nice, but not necessary – there were enough other flavors going on without it.

Caramelized Butternut Squash

We may turn into a butternut squash before too long, but wouldn’t we be delicious?

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, p. 151

Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash

I made a lot of risotto when we were first married.  It’s inexpensive, it’s easy to keep all of the ingredients on hand, it doesn’t take too long to make, and it’s a fairly easy way to have a meatless meal.  Mostly, I used Mark Bittman‘s recipe and added spinach.  Then, for a while, risotto fell out of favor here, partly because my husband grew tired of it, and partly because it’s kind of hard to stir something for 30 minutes when trying to keep a toddler entertained.  So, welcoming risotto back into our repertoire was like welcoming an old friend back into the kitchen.  The recipe on pp. 86-88 of Barefoot Contessa Family Style is very similar to the recipe I’ve used for years, but it adds prosciutto or pancetta and roasted butternut squash.  It was a delightful way to end a busy Sunday, and it didn’t even dirty that many dishes.  Eating the leftovers for the next few days for lunch felt downright decadent.  Note:  saffron is expensive.  If you know someone traveling to Spain or Israel, ask them to bring you some, because for some reason it is very affordable there.  It’s a wonderful souvenir to bring home because it’s lightweight, and takes up so little space in luggage.  My sister brought me back an ounce or so from her last trip to Spain, and it will last me a long time.

Maple Roasted Butternut Squash

Holy Hannah, this was good.  We had a butternut squash from our CSA box, and it was looking so pretty on our kitchen counter that I waited a few weeks to hack into it.  That’s the thing about winter squashes – they’re pretty, and they last a long time.  The butternut variety always, always make me think of the Veggie Tales.  I usually just roast butternut squash in its skin, and then add butter and brown sugar to serve.  It’s easy, it involves minimal cutting, and it tastes so good.  We had already used that method for some delicata squash that arrived earlier in the season, so we were game to try something new.  (And if we’re really hankering for the butter and brown sugar recipe later in the season, the squashes are plentiful and cheap for a long time).  Because of my favored roasting-in-the-skin method, I had never actually peeled a winter squash before, and it always seemed like such a pain.  Trader Joe’s sells a frozen, peeled, cubed butternut squash, but I think that’s probably better suited for soups and purees than roasting.  It turns out that my apprehension about peeling was unfounded.  A simple vegetable peeler made quick work of the skin, and once it was peeled, the chopping was easy.  (By the way, my favorite peelers and paring knives are from a little Mennonite store called Weaver’s Country Store in Augusta, Wisconsin.  If you’re in the area, I recommend the trip.  They mostly have (very inexpensive) dry goods.)

The recipe for Maple Roasted Butternut Squash (on p. 158 of Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics) also called for a handful of fresh sage.  Thankfully, my sage plant survived our recent snow (unlike some other poor unfortunate souls), and I had plenty of leaves to complete the recipe.  Also in this recipe:  garlic (which is plentiful from our CSA), and pancetta (for which I substituted prosciutto, simply because the pancetta looked rather grey).  I felt completely decadent in enjoying this for lunch on a weekday.

Peeled!

Fresh Sage

Delicious!