Gingered Kuri Squash Soup

As penance for my recent foray into non-seasonal vegetables, I went all out with local produce this weekend. Actually, I am trying to clear my stash of storage vegetables before spring. Every year at this time, I find myself with lingering winter squash, sweet potatoes and turnips, as well as onions and garlic that are starting to sprout, and ginger root still growing in a pot. Typically cheese pumpkins and blue hubbard squash are the lingerers but this year it’s red kuri squash, which is sometimes called Hokkaido squash or, in French, potimarron. Its flesh is dark orange and its flavor deep, even after it’s been stored for a couple of months. We grew these last year and they’re my new favorite.

I halved the squash, saved the seeds of course, and roasted it cut side down in a 350-degree oven until soft, about an hour. Once cooled, I scooped out the flesh and stored it in the refrigerator for all kinds of uses: soup, risotto, even pancakes.  I like this simplest of all soups, thick like puree, creamy from the addition of sweet potato, and very flavorful from the richness of the squash and the abundance of ginger.  Of course, you could make it creamier with the addition of coconut milk or garnish it with nuts or seeds, but it was perfect as is.

Gingered Kuri Squash Soup

3-4 lb red kuri squash

Olive oil

Salt

1 medium onion, chopped

Vegetable oil (such as canola)

3 tbsp slivered fresh ginger

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped

3-4 c vegetable broth or water, or a combination

Salt and hot red pepper to taste

Optional: ¼ c coconut milk

To prepare the squash, wash and halve it, and scoop out the seeds. Sprinkle the cavity with olive oil and salt and place the squash, cut side down, on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for about an hour or until very soft. Let the squash cool and scoop out the flesh. You can make this ahead of time.

To prepare the soup, slowly sauté the onion in a neutral vegetable oil such as canola until it softens. Add the ginger and stir until the ginger turns aromatic. Add the sweet potato and a couple of cups of vegetable stock or water or a combination. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer, covered, until the sweet potato is tender, about 15 minutes. Add the roasted squash, additional liquid if needed, and cook for another 15 minutes, covered.  Puree the mixture with an immersion blender or in a food processor. Adjust the seasonings and add more liquid if needed, including the optional coconut milk just before serving.

Serves 4

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Butternut Squash Chili

Butternut squash wins this season’s prize for versatility. After I made delicious vegetarian butternut squash lasagna at Christmas, to rave reviews, even from the skeptics, I was hooked on my new vegetable of choice. It also helps that I have an abundance of it from the fall, which like sweet potatoes stores well throughout the winter. Beta carotene anyone?

With the football Super Bowl approaching this weekend, the whole country is mad for chili. Our local Whole Foods has an annual cooking contest among 12 departments, serving up a wide variety of concoctions for shoppers to sample and vote on.  I stumbled on this event a couple of years ago and now I go when I can and collect the recipes. There have been some really good ideas in that contest but  one that appealed this year used a variety of Indian spices, a kind of vindaloo chili.  I thought about using those spices for a butternut squash chili, but opted instead for chili in adobo sauce, which involves chipotle (smoked jalapeno) chili peppers bathed in a spicy tomato sauce.  It’s thick, smoky and hot, and a little goes a long way. This is one of those canned condiments that takes me forever to use up. The adobo imparts instant heat and smokiness and, other than aromatic freshly toasted and ground cumin seed, the resulting chili needed little seasoning, not even salt.

Butternut Squash Chili

2 lbs butternut squash

1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces

1 red pepper, cut into ½-inch pieces

Vegetable oil

1-2 tsp chilis in adobo (sauce and a little pepper flesh)

1 tsp whole cumin seed, lightly toasted in a dry pan and ground or 1 tsp ground cumin

4 fresh tomatoes or 1 c chopped canned tomatoes, juice reserved

2 c vegetable broth or chicken stock

1 c  or more black beans

Salt to taste

Cilantro

Peel and seed the squash and cut into neat cubes, about ½-3/4 inches.  Save the odd bits for another use.

In a large saucepan, sauté the onion and pepper in vegetable oil until soft.  Add the butternut squash and sauté until the surfaces are lightly seared. Add the chili adobo and cumin and stir to combine. Add the tomatoes, tomato juice and the vegetable broth or chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cover the pan. Cook until the squash is just tender, about 20 minutes. Add the black beans, season to taste with salt and additional chili. Cook for another 5 minutes. Serve hot with cilantro.

Makes about 4 servings.

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Butternut Squash Risotto with Pomegranate Seeds

At the cusp of the old and new years, we are Janus-like, looking back and looking forward. We reminisce. We plan ahead. We see a whole year stretched out in front of us, with endless possibilities but we’re sometimes not mindful that it’s made up of single days. I’m sure that’s why New Year’s resolutions often don’t work.  I always attempt to start afresh by sorting, filing, cleaning, clearing.  So do others, if you believe the instinct of stores like Target that restock the Christmas shelves with storage boxes. I know, it’s also a clever way of taking up space while they change over the merchandise. After the hectic holidays – and this one set a record in length and intensity – I just want a clean desk and an organized pantry. 

So what does this have to do with butternut squash risotto and pomegranates? The answer is both pragmatic and symbolic.  The largesse of the holiday season has left us with bits of this and that – the plump end of a butternut squash, a bit of chicken broth, the last of a bottle of white wine, scraps of ham and a half a pomegranate, among other oddments.  Practically speaking, all but the pomegranate could end up in a soup, a bread pudding, or even a risotto, comfort food ringing out the old year and celebrating the new. But the pomegranate…  Now that’s magic, a nearly universal symbol of abundance and good luck because of the number of bright red seeds that it contains. Through the myth of Persephone (we were just talking about her at dinner the other night – really – due to a certain 5-year-old’s discovery of the near miraculous fruit), the pomegranate also speaks to the seasons, and renewal.  So here we have risotto that collects the old year’s leftovers and transforms them for the new.  Happy New Year.

Butternut Squash Risotto with Pomegranate Seeds

½ medium butternut squash

1 small onion, finely chopped

Butter (or olive oil)

¾ c Arborio rice

¼ c white wine

3-4 c chicken or turkey stock, warmed

Salt and pepper

Seeds from half a small pomegranate

Prepare the squash. Peel it and cut some into neat small dice, roughly chopping the remainder. Steam the diced squash until just tender and reserve it. Cook the chopped squash in a little water until soft and puree it.  The diced squash will be added at the end and the pureed squash will be combined with the risotto cooking liquid.

Lightly sauté the onion in a little butter until soft. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains. Start adding the stock, about ¼ c at a time, regulating the heat to keep the liquid at a simmer. Add the squash puree as you go. Keep stirring and adding additional ¼ c of stock and a little puree.

The entire risotto should take about 20 minutes to cook. When the risotto is just finished, adjust the seasonings. Stir in the diced squash and pomegranate seeds. Serve immediately.

Serves 3-4 as a side dish.

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Non-dairy, Gluten-free, Vegan Butternut Squash and Chard Lasagna

That title sounds like an oxymoron. The dish actually turned out to be a calculated and highly successful experiment. I’m cooking a “comfort food” luncheon during the holidays, for my family, a group with the craziest combination of food issues, all genuine. They’re based on ethics (vegans and vegetarians), on dietary requirements (gluten-free, dairy-free, low fat, low salt, not spicy) or on staunch preference (meat, white bread and potatoes, nothing green). Add to that my personal preference for foods that are seasonal, local and organic. Oh, and I didn’t mention that the meal is to be finally cooked and served 2½ hours from my kitchen, so it has to be portable too. Whoa. This is just my kind of assignment.

It takes flexibility and creativity in the kitchen to devise a menu for 20+ people that caters to this level of diversity. A cold buffet of meats and vegetables with salads of greens and grains would be a snap, but we decided that hot dishes would be preferable. Soups and chili and sandwiches and salads, maybe. Too informal. So lasagna it will be, except for “Ms. Meat and Potatoes,” who says she’ll bring her own food.  For her, we have wonderful ham and bread.

I am making three types of lasagna: chicken and red pepper on fresh spinach noodles, mixed mushrooms, and this one, that uses slabs of butternut squash as the noodle layer, and chard and tofu as the filling. The leeks and mushrooms add texture and a spark of flavor. No compromise here: this is one of the most delicious lasagnas I’ve ever invented.  Double this for a 9×13-inch pan.

Non-dairy, Gluten-free, Vegan Butternut Squash and Chard Lasagna

Long-necked butternut squash

Olive oil

Salt

Butternut squash seed oil (or substitute a tiny amount of toasted sesame oil)

1 lb organic soft tofu

1 bunch green chard, stems removed

Grated fresh nutmeg

2 small leeks, thinly sliced on the diagonal

A dozen or so cremini mushrooms

Fresh thyme

Salt and pepper

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the base and top off a butternut squash and peel it. If you have a mandoline or a similar slicer, slice the squash lengthwise into slabs that are ¼-inch thick and place them on baking sheets. Lightly brush them with olive oil on both sides and sprinkle them with a little salt. Bake them for 3-4 minutes, flip over and bake for another minute.  They should tender but not mushy. Transfer the slabs to a cooling rack and set aside.  When nearly cool, brush them lightly with butternut squash seed oil or sesame oil.

Drain the tofu, place it in a colander lined with a tea towel, weight it and let it drain for 15 minutes.

Trim the stems from the chard and set aside for another use. Cut the leaves cross-wise and rinse them well to remove any grit. Shallow boil them in a wide pan with about ½ inch of water at the bottom until tender. Drain and set aside to cool and continue draining. When cool, squeeze the chard dry and combine it with the tofu, mixing thoroughly. Liberally season with salt and pepper and add a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg.

Clean and slice the leeks. Saute them in olive oil over low heat, add a little water and salt and cover the pan. Braise until tender, about 5 minutes.

Clean the mushrooms and cut them into chunks or slices, as you prefer. Place them in a wide, dry sauté pan in one layer and place over medium-high heat. When the mushrooms brown on one side, add a little olive oil and continue to cook, stirring until the juices have fully rendered. Add about ½ tsp of fresh thyme and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble the lasagna. Oil the bottom of a ceramic or glass pan (7 x 10, 9 x 9, or thereabouts). Place one layer of butternut squash on the bottom, side by side. Spread half the chard-tofu mixture on top and sprinkle on one third of the mushrooms and leeks. Repeat. Top with final layer of squash and the remainder of the mushrooms and leeks.  This can be made ahead to this point.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven until bubbly, about 40 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 4-6.

Double to serve 8-12 from a 9×13 inch pan.

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Kale on Kale: Salad and Pasta, Happy Together

The raw and the cooked. Delicious, complexly flavored pasta with kale and stewed red onions served atop a raw kale salad with garlicky dressing. Topped with delicata squash croutons, a quintessential early fall supper.

This all happened when I came home on a Friday night, fried from a ridiculously busy week, without a clue about what’s for dinner or how many would show up, and knowing that I’d be going to our CSA farm in the morning to face a staggering harvest. Holy cow. Or, as it turned out, holy kale. 

I was craving raw green salad, so kale it would be, dressed in a garlicky sauce. To tame the bite of raw garlic in this dressing, I simmered roughly chopped cloves in olive oil, let them cool and emulsified them with a combination of red wine vinegar and balsamic. With a little salt and pepper, this created a delicious counterpoint to the sturdy kale leaves.  You could pour it on the greens while it’s warm to wilt them slightly, or cool the dressing first.

To dress the pasta, I caramelized thin moon-shaped pieces of red onion, cooking them slowly (15-20 minutes) in olive oil and finishing them with balsamic vinegar. The onions created a sweet note to the lightly stewed kale. Here I preferred wide pasta, fettuccini, which was sprinkled with wonderful toasted butternut squash seed oil from the Finger Lakes district of New York. The company also makes delicata squash seed oil. The combination of textures, flavors and colors created a completely satisfying and nutritious meal. Yum. 

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Roasted Delicata Squash

Delicata squash waltzes between summer and winter.  It should be called “autumn squash” since it thrives in the shoulder season. It’s in the cucurbit family, which ranges from cucumbers and zucchini to butternut squash and pumpkin, and it sits squarely in the middle. Elongated and thin skinned, it can be sliced lengthwise and used as a boat for baked fillings, or here, sliced crosswise (seeds removed) and roasted in the oven.  I love those golden rings.

I favor a simple the oven roasting method (400 degrees, olive oil and salt, under 10 minutes, flip once). And afterward, they can be served as a side dish, as here with baked Great Lakes lemon sole atop braised leeks and orzo, or as a room temperature appetizer sprinkled with lime juice and chili oil. Any way you cook it, this is a vegetable to watch.

We grew these organically at our fledgling farm (yay!) and have to eat them up since delicatas are not storage squash like harder skinned varieties. 

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Black-eyed Peas with Butternut Squash

A brightly colored one-pot meal for our first blustery winter day of snowy ground and gray sky.  Sprightly hues and sparky fresh ginger made this a perfect antidote to a dull day. Besides, making another tasty meal based on legumes is part of my resolve to prove that a diet of dried beans, lentils and other nitrogenous vegetables doesn’t need to seem like a sentence. You see, my husband’s doctor insists, and he resists.  He’s too young to be a statistic. So far, however, the gorgeous Christmas limas with cabbage and sweet potatoes, the curried chickpeas with mushroom, the lentil soup with chard, and now this, turn out to surprise him with flavor, texture, and looks. Can’t discount the looks. He said the lentils looked like mud and, well, they did, so here I went in the opposite direction, seeking the most colorful and flavorful combination.

The snowy white peas with their black eyes and the school-bus-yellow squash made a great-looking duo. I dulled the dish a little by adding much more tomato puree than the original recipe called for, but we were eating this as a main dish with a simple green salad, so I wanted the flavor and liquid.  Everything here is local except for the black-eyed peas and the dried spices.  The recipe comes from At Home with Madhur Jaffrey. I have to agree with Deborah Madison’s review of the book that says that “If I folded pages, every page would be turned down, marking a dish I just have to make, and soon.” I’m cooking my way through this inspired cookbook (as well as My Bombay Kitchen by Niloufer Ichiporia King), trying to decipher the seasonings of the Indian sub-continent. They’re great companions for a flavorful leguminous diet.

Black-eyed Peas with Butternut Squash adapted from Madhur Jaffrey

1 c organic dried black-eyed peas

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Scant ½ tsp whole dried cumin seeds

Scant ½ tsp whole dried fennel seeds

1 small onion, chopped

1 tsp finely chopped peeled fresh ginger

½ jalapeno chili, chopped

¾ c tomato puree

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper or a small red chili, crumbled

2 or more c water

¾ lb peeled and seeded butternut squash, cut into ½ to 3/4-inch cubes

Soak the black-eyed peas in plenty of water. Drain before using.

Pour the oil into a large pan set over medium-high heat. When hot, add the cumin and fennel seeds until the start to sizzle, about 10 seconds. Add the onions and cook until they start to turn brown at the edges. Add the garlic, ginger and chili and then the tomato puree. Add the black-eyed peas, salt, cayenne pepper and 2 cups of water to start. Bring the mixture or a boil, lower the heat and cook, partially covered for about 1 hour, or until the peas are tender and the water is absorbed. You should check on the mixture partway through and add more water if necessary. Serves 4-6 depending on whether it is served as a main course or a side dish.

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Dark Days 2: Ginger-Scallion Fish with Chard and Butternut Squash

A continuing series on weekly meals that use sustainable, organic, local and ethical food during the challenging winter months.

After all of the turkey and other rich food of the past weeks, we were longing for the lightest, simplest yet tastiest supper. David Tanis, who writes a column in the New York Times called “City Kitchen,” had the same reaction and created a lovely meal of cod with sesame oil and ginger accompanied by spinach lightly cooked in garlic and ginger.  With what I have on hand, I thought, sure, I could adapt this (meaning start all over but capture the idea) for the Dark Days Challenge.  This idea was possible because of three revelations in my local cooking sphere.

One, I found out about a local organic farm that produces Hawaiian ginger right here in New Jersey, only a few miles away. The baby ginger was relatively short-lived in the market, but there long enough for me to try it on anything (amazing) and to make ginger-garlic paste, a staple in Indian cuisine. And also Parsi cuisine, as told by Niloufer Ichaporia King in her fascinating book, My Bombay Kitchen. Some of the ginger has been consumed and some stashed in the freezer for darker days.  On a lark, I planted a piece in a pot set in a warm spot in the house.

Two, I grew Asian celery in my own little in-town garden, which uses organic principles. Pascal celery is one of the so-called “dirty dozen” vegetables that have a terrible record of being grown with fertilizers, pesticides etc. While I certainly buy organic celery from time to time, and our CSA grows it (though it’s been a frequent crop failure), I felt I needed a reliable source for the incomparable flavor. Celeriac stalks are also a good choice and a typical go-to for me, but because of our awful growing season, they too have been scarce. The Asian celery has been a great herb, and with the stalks now becoming more prominent, a credible vegetable. I used it in dried celery salt that I stashed away earlier in the season.

Three, our local (3 blocks away) health food store stocks Finger Lakes Butternut Squash Seed Oil from Stonybrook Wholeheartedfoods. This regionally produced oil is astonishing good, was encouraged by the good fools at Cornell, and is produced from non-GMO seeds from a farmer friend. The label doesn’t say it’s organic, but this store sells almost exclusively organic products and from what I can tell, it’s responsibly produced. It’s from Geneva, NY, a little outside my 150-mile radius but not by much. Just like the search for locally grown as well as milled flours, the search for similarly produced oils is in-bounds for me in the Dark Days Challenge.  For purpose of this recipe, it worked perfectly as a nutty substitute for Asian sesame oil, similar in viscosity and but cleaner in taste.  I highly recommend you search it out if you’re from the mid-Atlantic region.

Finally, I should say that the fish I used is a fluke flounder caught by a Jersey shore fisherman. While the fish watchdog Monterey Aquarium classifies fluke flounder as problematic, that’s west coast perspective. Local wisdom, backed by watchdog groups, agrees that the Atlantic fish is being treated responsibly.  

The rest of the ingredients are no-brainers for us: butternut squash from our CSA gently braised in ginger peels and a second version baked in the oven with squash oil; gorgeous garlic from our CSA minced with ginger; organic scallions from a local farm market; chard from my garden.  This was a lovely and refreshing dish that lightened up the dark days, at least for this week.

Baked Fish with Garlic-Ginger Paste and Scallions

¾-1 lb fish filets (fluke flounder or other white fish)

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste (equal amounts of fresh ginger and garlic)

1 tsp butternut squash seed oil (or sesame oil)

1 scallion, white and green parts, minced

1 stalk Asian celery, stalk minced and leaves separated

Smear the garlic-ginger paste and squash seed oil on both sides of the fish and let it marinate for 15-60 minutes in a baking dish.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the celery leaves at the bottom of the baking dish, place the fish on top and sprinkle the minced scallion and celery stalks. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 10 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Ginger and Butternut Seed Oil

While the fish is cooking, sprinkle small cubes of organic butternut squash with ginger and butternut squash seed oil and roast in the oven.

Braised Butternut Squash with Ginger

An alternative for roasting is a simple shall braise of squash cubes with the peelings of ginger in the water.

Wilted Green Chard

Wilt green chard leaves (reserve stalks for another use or shallow-boil them) in a small amount of water. Toss with ginger and butternut squash seed oil.

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Winter Squash Risotto with Sage

Risotto is one of the ultimate comfort foods in our house. A little leftover winter squash and turkey stock from the Thanksgiving bird were transformed into a delicious dish, satisfying enough to constitute an entire meal with just a salad of bitter greens and pears on the side. 

My typical proportions for risotto are ¼ cup of rice per person for a main dish, a little less for a side, cooked with 1-1¼ cup of stock. I end up using a little less stock when I’m adding something that contributes to the liquid content, like squash. So for this I used ¾ c Arborio rice, 3 cups of turkey (or chicken) stock and 3/4 c pureed squash.

Needing something to spark up the dish, I made browned butter and sautéed a few sage leaves, which I stirred into the risotto and also sprinkled on top. This was an entirely local and organic meal with the exception of the rice. I used a hard local cheese instead of the usual Parmesan.

Winter Squash Risotto (for 3 as a main dish, 4 as a side dish)

1 small onion, finely chopped

Butter (or olive oil)

¾ c Arborio rice

¾ -1 c squash puree

3-4 c chicken or turkey stock, warmed

Salt and pepper

¼ c grated Parmesan cheese or other flavorful hard cheese

Lightly sauté the onion in a little butter until soft. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains. Start adding the stock, about ¼ c at a time, regulating the heat to keep the liquid at a simmer. Keep stirring and adding additional ¼ c of stock. The entire risotto should take about 20 minutes to cook. About half way through, start adding the pureed squash with the stock. When the risotto is just finished, adjust the seasonings and add the grated cheese. Serve immediately.

Optional garnishes: sage leaves browned in butter, parsley or other herbs, sautéed leaves of Brussels sprouts or other greens.

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Chard Stuffed with Winter Squash, Brown Rice and Currants

These flavorful little bundles are perfect for a fall meal, simply served with a salad of bitter greens, pears and walnuts or as a side dish for roast chicken. I wrapped lightly blanched leaves of young chard around a risotto-like combination of roasted winter squash and brown rice, perked with little bites of dried currants and a pinch of ground mace. The bundles were baked on top of blanched slivers of freshly dug carrots and chard stems (don’t throw them away, they’re delicious!). The texture of the slightly crisp slivered vegetables complemented the soft centers of the stuffed greens, and the flavors were a great combination.

This dish was a real workaround of the weather. First, with a pending snow and ice storm (yes, in October, do you believe it?) I harvested an armful of chard from my garden and tented the remaining crop just in case.  The chard was young, with delicate leaves and long leggy stems, so I was determined to use both.  Second, after the hurricane that we had here a few months ago, the local crops of winter squash were compromised. Our CSA warned us not to keep the squash too long and to wipe down the outside with hydrogen peroxide or diluted bleach when we took it home. Scary idea. While I normally would have stored the squash in our cold basement until sometime in the winter, we’re eating our way through the small crop right now. I used a portion of a small dumpling squash, dicing it into ¼-inch pieces and roasting it in the oven. For the rice, I decided on short-grain brown rice since it’s stickier than other types and I thought that it would hold its shape better.  I made the stuffing the day before and stored it in the refrigerator.

Chard Stuffed with Winter Squash, Brown Rice and Currants

6-8 stalks of green chard

1/3 c short grain brown rice

Water

1 c diced (1/4–1/3 inch cubes) firm winter squash (e.g., butternut or dumpling)

Olive oil

1 tbsp dried currants

¼ tsp ground mace (or nutmeg or cinnamon)

Salt and pepper

1 small carrot, cut into 1½-inch long matchsticks

Slice the stems from the leaves of chard, reserving both. Cut the stems into 1½-inch matchsticks and set aside.

Make the stuffing (this can be done a day in advance and refrigerated). Add rice to boiling water and cook it, at a gentle boil, until al dente, about 30 minutes. Drain and set aside. Toss the diced squash in a little olive oil and salt and roast in the oven at 400 degrees until soft and slightly brown, about 10 minutes, turning part way through roasting. Remove to a bowl to cool. Combine the rice and squash, add the dried currants and spice of choice, and season with salt and pepper.

When ready to assemble and bake, bring a large pot of water to boil and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Plunge the chard leaves in the boiling water and remove them quickly to an ice water bath. Drain the leaves immediately and place them on a towel to flatten and lightly dry. Add the carrots and chard stems to the boiling water to blanch them and remove them to a baking dish, sprinkling them with salt and a few drops of olive oil.

To make the chard bundles, place a spoonful of the rice mixture (amount depends on the size of the leaves) on each chard leaf, roll up from the stem end, adjusting to make sure no filling is visible and folding in the sides to make a neat package. Place on top of the carrots and chard stems. Bake for about 25 minutes.

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