Butternut Squash Soup

Calorie Count: 2400 with cream, 2000 without

Ingredients

• 2 T olive oil
• 2 leeks (or a large onion), diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 1 butternut squash (2-3 pounds), peeled, seeded and coursely diced
• 2 waxy potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 or 3 apples, peeled and diced
• 2 T of ginger, peeled and minced
• a few garlic cloves, chopped
• a pinch or two of red pepper flakes
• 6-8 cups vegetable broth
• 1 C cream
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Over medium heat, sweat the onions, carrots, and celery for a few minutes with a hefty pinch of salt.
2. Add in everything else, stir and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add in the broth with a healthy blast of black pepper.  Bring to a boil, and then simmer 20 to 60 minutes depending on how lazy your dice was, until everything is cooked.
4. Add cream. Blend everything thoroughly with an immersion blender.
5. Serve warm with a blast of citrus juice to brighten.

Winter Squash Ratatouille

Just had a great Sunday dinner with my friends Jon, Diane, and Sharri and her housemates.  Jon and Diane made a nice salad, sunchokes, and a great apple pie (not too sweet, and Vietnamese cinnamon?!).  Sharri made a chicken–a delicious free-range bird with a garlic, apple cider, and other wonderful things glaze.  And I made this take on ratatouille.  This is the first recipe I’ve come up with prettymuch from whole cloth in a while, and it was quite a success, with the help of a fortunate mistake (adding the eggplant “too early”, or so I thought) and my friends (“lots more garlic!”).

One thing I’m starting to learn about vegetable dishes like this one is taste very often!  The amount of vegetable matter and it’s native variability makes it hard to get the seasoning just right.  Taste often and season slowly.  Add salt and pepper slowly over the course of cooking, as the flavors develop.  When you’re close, stop, wait awhile, and taste again.

Calorie Estimate: 1900 (lots of improv was going on, check this next time)

Ingredients

• 1 really large onion, diced
• 12 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter
• 3/4 can tomato paste
• 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, 1/4″ dice (about 2 lbs worth)
• 2 very small eggplant (about 1 “italian” eggplant), 1/3″ dice
• 1/2 lb fresh chanterelle mushrooms, bite size pieces
• 1/2 oz dried lobster mushrooms
• 6-10 T diced celery
• 2 cups water
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 1 T or so fresh rosemary, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• truffle oil to taste (less than 1 t, added slowly and tasting often)

Preparation

1. Make a mushroom broth.  Rehydrate dried mushrooms in 2 cups of water (I used lobster ’cause they’re awesome).  In the simmering liquid, add a diced slice of onion (thumb-width wedge), finely-diced celery, and 1 finely-diced chanterelle.  For this dish, add red wine vinegar since the acid will help counter the sweetness of the squash.  Some salt and pepper, a bay leaf if you’ve got it (I didn’t), and simmer slowly for an hour.
2. Dice the onion, garlic, and veggies before you start cooking.  To a big pot over medium heat (an enameled cast iron dutch oven would be awesome), add the butter.  Then, add the onion and garlic.  Soften, but don’t brown for 5-7 minutes or so.
3. Add in the tomato paste about 1/2 can.  Mix it around until it coats everything.  Try to brown it a little, 5 minutes or so.  Later on in the cooking, if it needs more paste, it’s okay to add it then.
4. Add in the squash, eggplant, and mushrooms, then the broth.  Stir everything together.  Salt lightly at this point to help pull the moisture out of the vegetables.  I thought adding the eggplant this early was a mistake, since it really broke down by the time the squash finished 45 minutes later, but it turned out to be key to the velvety texture.  Unlike regular ratatouille with zucchini, the butternut squash is much sturdier, and so the broken down eggplant binds this dish very nicely.  If the eggplant had some texture left, it may have conflicted with the toothsome squash.
5. I kept stirring for most of the cooking time, since we were hanging out in the kitchen, but it could probably cook covered with the occasional stir.  Pretty early on, I added about 1 T of chopped fresh rosemary. More wasn’t necessary later on, although it might’ve made a nice garnish if I was serving the food plated instead of family style.
6. Toward the end of cooking (about 45 minutes), add truffle oil, slowly, stirring and tasting often.  You want to stop the instant you become aware of its presence.  Truffle oil is a secret that adds a lot of character, but it can quickly dominate.  Also, dial in the salt and pepper at this point.
7. A few minutes before letting it rest, add 1 T of balsamic vinegar for a touch of color and the flavor.
8. Be sure to let the dish rest for at least 15 minutes so it really comes together.

Mashed Butternut Squash

I’ve recently discovered winter squash, and I figured this would make for a nice twist on steak and potatoes.  This time of year, the squash are great-sweet and flavorful.  This simple recipe is a keeper.

Calories estimate:  100 per cup of mashed squash

Ingredients

• butternut squash (you get about 3 cups per pound, so buy accordingly)
• butter (1/4 T per cup or so)
• salt to taste
• (a little maple syrup, depending on how sweet the squash is and the dish it’s going with)

Preparation

1. Split the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Roast skin-side down in a wide pan with 1/4 inch of water in a 400^o oven for 1 hour or until tender.
2. Drain the water and let the squash cool until you can handle it.  Scoop out the cooked squash, leaving the skin behind.  Mash the squash with butter and seasonings.  Adjust to suit your tastes.