Squash | vmac+cheese

Recipe: Butternut Squash Soup

Posted on November 3, 2011 by vmacandcheese

Even with boots, chilly weather, and blog posts about pumpkins, to me, it’s not officially fall until I make a batch of butternut squash soup. For one thing, it’s easy, filling, and oh-so healthy. But the soup’s gorgeous, saturated orange color? The way it warms you from the inside out? Fall. Totally fall.

Butternut squash soup is great in that it’s simple on its own, but you can zhush it up with garnishes and other add-ins to make it fancier. It’s also the perfect thing if you’re looking for a vegan/vegetarian friendly recipe — there’s definitely no rule that says you have to include chicken stock or cream in it!

Below is a version I made on Monday night to bring for lunches throughout the week. I like making my soup with something to add just a touch of sweetness. This time, instead of apples, I used two pears that were on their last leg. Along with a sweet potato and some regular potatoes to help thicken things up, this soup was SO satisfying. Feeling fancy? You could dress it up with a dollop of crème fraîche, or swirl some cream right into the soup once you’ve heated it. I’m guessing a garnish of chives and crumbled bacon would also not be horrible. I’ve tried butternut squash soup with toasted hulled pumpkin seeds on top, too — it’s really good!

Simple Butternut Squash Soup
Serves 8 (at least)

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 medium sized butternut, peeled and diced
–kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tsp dried thyme, or 1 tbsp if you are using fresh
1 dried bay leaf
2 Bosc peers, peeled, cored and roughly chopped (could substitute apples, too)
1 large orange sweet potato, peeled and diced
2 large red potatoes, peeled and diced (you could also substitute Yukon gold or russet — whatever you have)
2 quarts vegetable stock

In a large heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Once hot, add in the onion and the diced squash, then season well with salt and pepper. Stir and let sweat, until the onions are softened and beginning to turn translucent. Pour in the white wine and stir. Add in the thyme, the bay leaf, the pears, the potatoes and the stock. Gently stir, and season well with salt and pepper.

Bring to a simmer and let cook for half an hour, or until the largest pieces of potato or squash are very tender. Remove the bay leaf. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until it is velvety smooth. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can add batches of the soup to a blender and process. Be careful not to add too much; work in small batches so as not to accidentally burn yourself. Taste the pureed soup and adjust the seasonings.

Serve hot with the garnishes of your choice.

Also, here’s a quick tutorial on how to cut up a butternut squash. No need to be intimidated by their strange shape and hard skin!

1. Of all the winter squashes, I think butternuts have the thinnest skin. I used to cut away the skin with a knife, but I hated how much squash I’d lose (and I almost chopped off my finger a time or two). A few years ago when I was recipe testing for a local newspaper, a chef showed me how I could just peel it with a sturdy vegetable peeler (I like the Good Grips one from OXO), and I’ve never looked back. It’s much safer, and you get more squash that way. You can also cut the squash in half first (see below) if it’s easier for you to peel it this way.

2. Once you’ve peeled the butternut, cut it crosswise where the base of the squash starts to balloon or bell out. This is approximately where the seeds are.

3. Cut both pieces in half; this will make them more manageable to cut down further. Use a spoon to scoop the seeds out and discard any of the stringy pulp.

4. If you’re cubing the squash like I was for the soup, cut the longer part into planks, then into sticks, then into cubes. You can cut the round part of the squash into half circles, then dice from there.

Presto! Your squash is all cut up and ready to go, and you didn’t slice off your hand trying to deal with it.

Filed under: Food, Kitchen Basics, Recipes, Soups, Squash | Tagged: butternut squash, fall recipes, soup | 12 Comments »

Baked Ratatouille

Posted on August 4, 2011 by vmacandcheese

Fall may have my heart when it comes to fashions, but food wise? I’m totally a summer girl. Who can say no to the bounty of fresh vegetables, fruits and fragrant herbs that hit their peak this time of year?

One of my absolute favorite dishes to make in the summer time is ratatouille. A traditional dish hailing from the Provence region of France (and pronounced rat-eh-too-ee…it took me forever to get it right), ratatouille is traditionally made by stewing together tomatoes, onions, peppers, eggplant, squash and herbs. There’s much debate about the ‘proper’ way to make it, and like many French dishes, it seems like the right way to make it is the way your grandmother did.

In any case, I had yet to make a batch this summer, and was dying to get back in to the kitchen after several weeks of vacationing and dining out. I had also had this image pinned on Pinterest for a while, and it inspired me to try my hand at a sort of baked ratatouille, made a bit more decadent (and very non-traditional) with a crusty, cheesy topping. All the same flavor, but it would look much prettier when it was finished! As I was making this, I remembered another French dish called confit byaldi, which is a variation on ratatouille and was also featured in the 2007 Pixar film by the same name. Mine is definitely not as fancy as that, but it was SO simple to put together and it tasted like summer. On a Wednesday night in August, who can ask for more?

Baked Ratatouille

Serving: The recipe below makes enough for one large round baking dish. I divided my vegetables up in to one medium oval dish, and another smaller one. Depending on whether you were serving this as a main course or as a side dish, the recipe can feed between 2 and 4 people.

extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
–pinch crushed red pepper flake
1 medium-large zucchini
1 medium-large yellow zucchini
1 orange heirloom tomato
4 medium vine tomatoes
1 small Japanese eggplant
1 tbsp tomato paste
–Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

Note about the vegetables: Be sure to purchase squash, eggplant and tomatoes that are roughly the same size in diameter. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but if you end up with a really skinny zucchini and a fat eggplant, you may have to do some trimming to get the dish to look as nice. When I made this dish, I used a regular bell shaped eggplant, and that made things more difficult, which is why I’m recommending the use of Japanese eggplant. They tend to be more cylindrical.

For garnish:

–Asiago or your choice of cheese (I’d try Parmigiano Reggiano, or even goat cheese! But whatever you have around and will melt well.)
–Fresh basil, julienned

Preheat your oven to 400°.

In a medium skillet, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Once hot, add in the onions and let cook for a minute until they just begin to soften. Add in half of the chopped garlic, the crushed red pepper flake, and season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring occassionally, while you prepare the vegetables. Lower the heat if you notice the onions are browning too quickly.

While the onions cook, slice the ends off the squash and eggplant, as well as the stems off of the tomatoes. Then, slice each vegetable so that it is about 1/4″ thick. You can make this more thick or less thick — the most important thing is that you make your cuts consistent, so the vegetables will all cook evenly. If you make the cuts thinner, keep in mind they can cook faster; thicker, and they will take a bit longer (though the flavor can develop more).

Once the vegetables are prepped, add in the tomato paste to the pan with the onions. Stir to distribute and “melt,” until the paste has coated the onions and the mixture is fragrant. Transfer the onion mixture to the bottom of your baking dish, and drizzle with a tablespoon or so of olive oil.

Next, begin arranging your sliced vegetables in the dish, alternating by color. You can arrange these in whatever pattern you want; I like to stack them in an outer circle first, then fill the inside area with leftover pieces. Sprinkle the rest of the garlic over the top of the arranged vegetables, then season the whole thing with salt and pepper, and drizzle with a bit more olive oil.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes to an hour, or until the mixture is very bubbly and the vegetables look tender. Remove the dish from the oven, and turn your broiler on to high. Layer shaved or sliced cheese on top of the cooked vegetables, then bake underneath the broiler until the cheese gets bubbly and brown. Let the dish sit for a couple minutes, garnish with freshly chopped basil, and serve. This is delicious with grilled steaks, roasted chicken, and would also be awesome with pasta or cous cous!

Filed under: Food, French, Recipes, Squash, Veggies | Tagged: cooking, eggplant, Food, Recipes, squash, summer recipes, tomatoes, Vegetarian Recipes | 4 Comments »

Change in seasons

Posted on November 18, 2008 by vmacandcheese

Apologies for the light posting over the last two weeks. They’ve been weird ones.

I’m not really in a position to say much else than I find myself in a very transitional phase right now. We’ve all gone through those periods where we were happy, but still uncomfortably aware of the uncertainty in our lives (that, in reality, was with us all along). My mind has been more preoccupied with figuring some things out than it has been with interesting food tidbits and writing short stories — though, to be sure, I’m as addicted as ever to the food blogs and have been eating quite well at home. Worry not…I’ll never lose my interest in good eats.

I spent this last weekend in the company of good friends, as a large group of college companions made their way up to the Bay Area for the annual “Weekender,” in which our alma mater plays either Stanford or Berkeley. It was nice spending time with good people, and reminding myself that at this age, at this moment in our lives — mid-20somethings nearly 3 years out of school — that uncertainty is more than okay: it’s completely expected. I have a terrible habit of worrying, and an even worse habit of trying to have all the answers, all the time. It’s nice to be grounded by other people and remember that I’m doing okay.

That, and soup always helps. Here are two more fantabulous soup recipes I created in the last week. Can you tell I’ve been needing warm, soul-soothing comfort food? (more…)

Filed under: Food, Just thinking..., Mediterranean, Other meats, Recipes, Soups, Squash | Leave a Comment »

A sign of the times

Posted on November 7, 2008 by vmacandcheese

In an effort to save what little money I have and get back in the kitchen, I’ve been cooking at home a lot lately. Sometimes my relationship with cooking goes through weird phases; make no mistake, I always love to eat, but there will be times — days, or even weeks — where I just can’t muster up the energy to get in the kitchen and make something spectacular. This is when we end up eating a lot of salads, pasta, crudites and sandwiches from the deli down the street. Eventually, there is a house revolt and I’m forced to make margaritas and Mexican food for a certain someone.

But earlier this week, even before the enchiladas and our new president (!), I made a meal completely evocative of fall, and of my childhood: grilled pork chops with mustard sauce and roasted acorn squash. My mother used to make that exact dinner when I was a kid, except her approach was a bit more minimalist. She liked thinner cut shoulder chops, and would broil them with nothing more than a bit of salt and pepper. The squash was cooked in the microwave.

I told her about this dinner a few nights ago, during one of our bi-weekly chats. “Hmm,” she said greedily, thinking over the components of the meal in her mind, “I sure wish I could’ve been there.”

Me too, mama.

For the chops: (more…)

Filed under: Food, Main Courses, Mama, Recipes, Sauces, Squash, The pig | Leave a Comment »