butternut squash Archives - Mamma's Cooking

Butternut Squash Soup

This is my signature soup. When I started cooking a lot, as my stress relief in law school, I made this soup based on a recipe from the Food Network Kitchens. I have adapted it over the years and tried different flavors. This one comes out phenomenally!

Butternut Squash Soup

Adapted from Food Network Kitchens

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large red onion or sweet onion chopped
1 clove of garlic chopped
1/4 teaspoon dry rubbed sage
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 medium butternut squash peeled and chopped
8 ounces of tomato sauce
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 1/4 cup chicken stock or vegetable stock

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a stock pot on the stove at medium heat.
Caramelize onions and garlic with the herbs, probably about 15-20 minutes.
Add butternut squash, stir and cook for about 10 minutes.
Add tomato sauce, vinegar and stock. Stir and cook for about 20 minutes, until squash is soft enough to mush with a fork against the side of pot.
Blend with hand blender in the pot or cool and transfer to a blender to blend until smooth.
Check for seasoning and serve.

People will not believe that this soup is dairy free and gluten free and if you use vegetable stock, vegan. Gasp! It is phenomenal, warm, comforting and so good with grilled cheese. Which yes, you can make gluten free. Gluten free bread is best when toasted and covered in melted cheese, in my opinion 🙂

Happy Night before the night before Christmas and the night before the first night of Hanukkah!

Here are some more soup recipes if you are in the mood for a different flavor:

Coconut Curry Sweet Potato Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup

Potato Leek Soup

What can I do with Thanksgiving leftovers?

If you and your family do not eat leftovers, send the rest home with someone else because there are people like me, who can eat Thanksgiving leftovers every day. Seriously. Every single day, every meal, I can eat turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, squash and cranberry sauce for the week following Thanksgiving. But for many (MOST) that gets boring. So, here are some ideas to hide it so your family doesn’t even know its leftovers! And as always, it’s good food that happens to be gluten free.

leftover-turkey-sandwich

Changing the flavor profile is the easiest way to disguise the leftovers. You can shred some of the turkey and mix it with your favorite barbecue sauce and serve on leftover rolls or with cornbread stuffing. Add the turkey to jarred Tikka Masala sauce and serve with rice. You can make Asian rice noodles, Italian pasta, Quesadillas or Chili. Using the leftover turkey, squash or vegetables from the veggie tray you can make any of the dishes in my recent Super Easy Pasta Night, 3 Easy 10 Minute Meal , Taco Tuesday – Step Outside the Taco Shell and Crowd Pleasing Chili posts.

There are so many options! With the ideas and recipe links above you can make your own takeout! Save the money for the holidays 🙂

Happy planning, cooking and try not to stress. Send me your questions for Thanksgiving or for what to do with leftovers! or tell us your leftover ideas! Comment here or send me an email to mammascooking@gmail.com.

Butternut squash and kale…I love the fall!

If you follow my facebook page you have seen me posting items about my slow cooker and kale experiments this week. You can click here to follow me on facebook 🙂

Fall is great for using butternut squash and kale (among other items I will highlight in future blogs). I tend to be a creature of habit and have basically been using butternut squash only for soup for the last few years. I decided to do something a little different this week and use it for other purposes, as a side dish with a meat and as part of a main course.

London Broil with Butternut Squash, Zucchini over Polenta

Approx. 1.5 lb London Broil (mine was frozen and about 1.8 lbs)
1 small to medium size butternut squash, cubed
1 zucchini cubed
2 small onions sliced
2 cups beef broth
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp sugar
pinch of sage
1-2 Tbsp Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning (mix of salt, coriander, paprika, mustard seed, black peppercorns, onion, garlic, chili pepper)
1 bay leaf

2 cups polenta
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups milk
1/4 cup parmesan

Add London Broil, squash, zucchini, onions to slow cooker. Then add liquids and spices. Mix together. Cook on low for 5-7 hours. About an hour before serving, make quick polenta. Bring chicken stock and milk to a slow boil and slowly add quick cooking polenta while whisking. When done, add parmesan and mix.

Serve with steak, squash + onions on top of polenta.

Tip: For the kids, take some of the polenta and put it in a small brownie pan. Cool + then cut into fun shapes using a cookie cutter. Karina and the boys love this! Easy for toddlers to pick up.

Kale and Basil Pesto with Roasted Butternut squash (Approx. 6 servings)
Based on this NY Times recipe.

About 1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, cubed.
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Lemon pepper
1 small bunch (about 1/2 pound) kale, center ribs removed
1 small bunch of fresh basil
1 box whole wheat penne

2 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1/4 – 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place squash on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil and season generously with salt and lemon pepper. Spread pieces into an even layer, making sure there is space between them. Roast, stirring squash pieces once or twice, until golden brown and tender, about 30-45 minutes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; have ready a bowl of ice water. Drop kale into boiling water and cook for 45 seconds. Use tongs or slotted spoon to transfer kale to ice water (slotted spoon worked better for me). Bring water in pot back to a boil, adding more if necessary so there is enough to cook pasta.

Drain kale well, then wrap tightly in a dry kitchen towel and squeeze thoroughly to remove any excess moisture. Roughly chop leaves. When water in pot comes back to a boil, cook pasta according to package directions.

In a food processor, pulse together kale, basil, garlic, salt, some lemon pepper and parmesan until mixture is smooth and salt has dissolved. With motor running, slowly drizzle in the oil until fully incorporated. Taste and add more salt and lemon pepper if necessary.

Drain pasta and reserving a little cooking water. Toss pasta with kale and basil pesto and some pasta cooking water if necessary to help it coat pasta. Add squash and mix. My 3 (almost 4 year old) mixed this for me and loved it as did my 16 month old boys. It was very messy, but they ate it all up.

I also made some kale chips, using this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/baked-kale-chips/detail.aspx, but I added some South African Smoke (a great spice blend from Trader Joe’s) and salt. My husband loved them. The kids thought they were leaves they could crush 🙂

I hope to have some more posts in the next couple of weeks about the wonderful local fall produce and what I’ve made with it!

Check out this weekly column I recently discovered (Thank you Sally!) for some great ideas for local fall foods: http://westford.patch.com/columns/cooking-with-sally.

Fall is in the air….

I LOVE the fall! Crisp, cool air, apple picking, pumpkin picking and the smell of the fireplace. I am spending my first fall in New England since I was 18 years old! I am very excited 🙂

We went apple picking this past weekend. It was so much fun. We went to Parlee Farms in Tyngsboro, MA, near the New Hampshire border. They let us bring the stroller on the hayride to get to the apple orchard. Awesome. When you have 15 month old twins who run in opposite directions and an (almost) 4 year old who gets jealous if mommy and daddy are each holding a baby, this is absolutely key to a successful outing. We picked MacIntosh and Cortlands and sampled lots along the way 🙂

Today Karina and I made whole wheat apple muffins and apple sauce. For the muffins, I use the recipe on the back of Aunt Jemima’s whole wheat pancake mix and add a little more brown sugar.

For the applesauce, I used a recipe from allrecipes.com and doubled it: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/sarahs-applesauce/detail.aspx. The smell of water, sugar, apples and cinnamon sticks in the slow cooker was intoxicating! This is absolutely delicious! If you are using tart apples, add a little more sugar.

Tomorrow night is the first butternut squash soup night this fall!! I can’t wait! I may try a different recipe next time, but this old fall favorite is such a comfort.

Cooking down the fridge and pantry and how to use holiday leftovers

So I didn’t find the time I thought I would have with 2 weeks off! That’s the way things go. Happy New year to everyone!

With all of our holiday visitors I stocked our fridge and freezer and cooked for 7 days straight! Now its time to empty out the fridge and clean out the pantry and see how long I can go without grocery shopping (except for essentials like milk and other fresh items as needed.)

Great thing to do with leftovers from a crowd is to make mac-n-cheese. I had a bunch of cold cuts and sliced cheese and had all the makings for spinach and artichoke dip on hand (in case we needed more food), so I decided to make a spinach and artichoke mac-n-cheese. I based it off of the Better Homes and Gardens recipe for spinach dip that I use and used the abundance of sliced swiss, colby and havarti that I had in the fridge along with some whole wheat pasta. Delicious!!! Make a basic cheese sauce (1/3 cup of better, 1/3 cup of flour, 2-3 cups of milk). Here is the link for how to make this sauce. I then added worchestershire sauce, a little lemon juice, 1/2 tsp of minced garlic, 8 oz of cream cheese, about 2 cups of shredded cheese, 1 jar artichokes – chopped, and thawed 10 oz package of spinach. Mix with pasta and top with panko breadcrumbs and cook for about 40 minutes at 375.

With the leftover mashed potatoes (or extra potatoes you didn’t cook) you can make shepherds pie. I usually keep ground beef or turkey in the freezer, so made this with the leftover peas from dinner as well. Put a layer of mashed potatoes at the bottom of the pan. Cook the ground beef with onions, salt, pepper and coriander or use a packet of onion soup mix for 1 -2lbs of beef. I used the soup mix because I ran out of onions and had that from dip I made. Once beef is cooked, add 2 Tbsp of sour cream and mix well. Place layer of ground beef on top of potatoes then layer with peas and repeat. I had my 3 year old layer the peas on top to help. Put a last layer of potatoes on the top then cook for about 30 -45 minutes (depending on your oven) at 375 degrees.

Another item you may have are leftover roast or ham. You can easily use these as a filling for quesadillas, tacos or enchiladas or add into this delicious soup recipe that I use from Busy Moms Weeknight Favorites from Southern Living. Take 5 large baking potatoes, peeled and cubed, 1 medium onion chopped, 28 oz of chicken broth, 12 oz of diced ham (or beef), 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets, 2tsp bottle minced garlic, 1/2 tsp of salt and 3/4 tsp pepper and add all these into the slow cooker and cooked on high for 1 hour and then reduce to Low and cook for 6 hours. (I also cook it on the stove in about and hour or when the potatoes are tender). Process half of the soup mixture in a food processor (or use a hand held immersion blender) and then pour it back into the pot. Add 2 cups of cream (I used fat free half and half) and 2 cups of cheddar (or you can also use your leftover cheese from a cheese plate).

If you are like me and live in the Pacific NW, salmon is very often a part of a holiday meal. I use leftovers for making a fritata the next morning. To about 5 beaten eggs add in some leftover mashed potatoes and shred some of the cheese from the cheese plate you put out the night before and you have an easy, delicious meal! You can add in the leftover salmon or ham or bacon or just leave as potato and cheese. Bake for about 20-30 minutes (until edges are brown and eggs are cooked in the center) at 375. Here is a picture of the bacon wrapped salmon I made at Christmas (maple smoked bacon, wrapped around salmon which as been seasoned with thyme, rosemary, lemon juice and white balsamic vinegar, wrapped in foil and baked for 30 min at 375 – 3lbs of salmon).

If you have leftover squash – make soup with it. I made butternut squash soup from the leftover squash at Christmas dinner and a bag of squash I happened to have in the freezer.

To be able to use all the random pantry, fridge and freezer items I accumulated over the holidays, I created an inventory and a meal plan. My hope is the meal plan will last us for the next 2 weeks and will use up all the items in my fridge/freezer. It took a while to get organized. I first inventoried all the food + condiments we have (and finally threw out some old spices! If I haven’t used the garam masala in 3 years, I’m probably not going to use it now). Then looking at my inventory, I created meals. I made it through 2 weeks and then lost steam. This is a great way to save money (New year’s resolution # 1) and get organized with a fresh start. A week into it, we have stayed on track!

Happy New Year and happy cooking!

My favorite fall meal…

Tonight I am going to make my favorite fall meal = Butternut squash soup. It is just perfect for a cool fall day or night. I found the recipe years ago on the food network website and have reworked it a little bit.

Butternut Squash Soup

This will feed 6-8 people. I usually make 1 + 1/2 recipe. I also add coriander and cumin and little extra sage and before I add in the tomatoes I add in extra balsamic to flavor the onions (enough to cover the bottom of the pot) and let it cook down.

From Food Network Kitchens

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, smashed (I usually only use 2-3)
2 fresh sage leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 medium canned plum tomatoes

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 pounds), peeled, halved, seeded, and diced
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth, veggie broth or water
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (I use about 3 – 4 Tbsp)
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, optional

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, sage, 1 teaspoon of the salt and season with pepper, to taste. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant, about 15 minutes. Raise heat to medium-high, add the tomatoes, and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the tomatoes break up and the onions brown slightly, about 7 minutes. Add the squash and the remaining teaspoon salt, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the squash is tender, about 12 minutes. Add the broth, bring to a simmer, and cook, uncovered, until the vegetables tender, about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.

Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender, or with an immersion blender. Return the soup to the pot and reheat over medium heat. Stir in the vinegar. Serve the soup in warm bowls with a touch of parmesan cheese if desired.

This is a little time intensive, but so worth it!

Quinoa Butternut Squash Risotto

This was an experiment that worked! I wasn’t sure if the Quinoa would get creamy enough to make risotto, but it did and mixed with roasted butternut squash = fall in a bowl 🙂

Quinoa Butternut Squash Risotto

1-2 cups water

1 med size butternut squash (cut in half) (or 2 pkgs already cut up from Trader Joes)

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 med onion minced

1 clove garlic minced

2 cups quinoa (or aborrio rice, brown rice or barley)

4-6 cups broth (vegetable broth or you can use water + add herbs, or chicken or beef broth. I use 1/2 chicken broth + 1/2 beef for best flavor)

2-3 sage leaves

2 tsp salt (may need more to your taste)

2 tsp pepper (more to your taste)

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese (you can leave this out if making the dish vegan)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pour water in baking dish (like a lasagna dish), enough to cover bottom. Place squash halves face down in water and prick the backs with a fork. Place in oven and roast for about 45 minutes.

Heat broth/water in a saucepan or glass bowl in microwave. In a saucepan melt butter then add onion and garlic. Cook for about 3 minutes or until onions begin to become translucent. Add quinoa and stir to coat with butter, onions. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add about a cup of hot broth and stir until incorporated. Repeat until you taste the quinoa and its creamy, probably about 30 – 45 min. Then remove from heat and add sage, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese (add more or less of any of these to your taste).

Take finished squash out of the oven and allow to cool enough for you scrape out the flesh and mix it into the quinoa mixture. Add more seasoning to taste. Then serve!

[You can also make this an easy way. I make it in the rice cooker with a little less liquid and its not as smooth and creamy, but still yummy and takes less time and effort]

Just got the computer back, so photos finally next time!