222: Leftover Squash and Sage Quinoa

I had some acorn squash kicking around my fridge, leftover from making that soup (which, by the way, got a little bitter as it sat around in the fridge), and was in need of a quick lunch. I boiled up some quinoa, throwing a few (maybe 4 or 5?) sage leaves in with the grains, and let it work while I took a shower. I considered throwing some of the squash in there, but knew that I wasn't going to be using it all up this on the one lunch, and wanted there to be as much flexibility for the meal component as I could.

When it was done I mixed some with the pieces of squash- being somewhat careful about my stirring, as I didn't want to completely mash up the squash pieces. Topped with a healthy bit of black pepper and a little more salt. Simple and comforting.

216: Roasted Squash and Turnip Soup

There was a recipe I was going to follow, listed in this week's delivery post, for a roasted squash and turnip soup. I guess I used that as a guideline, but mostly did my own thing.

Ingredients:

1/2 acorn squash

1 turnip, quartered

2 onions, halved

1 head of garlic

2 leeks, cleaned and sliced

~ chicken broth

~ 7 sage leaves

salt, pepper, olive oil

I roasted all my ingredients (which had been mixed with a little olive oil and salt) in a 425 degree oven until soft. As all that was near finishing I sauteed my leeks until browning, then chopped up my soft turnips and onion and threw them in the pan. Honestly these were a little under- could've used some more time in the oven, but I let them finish steaming in the pot. Squeezed my garlic out of the skins into the pot and added some chicken broth to deglaze. Let that simmer for a bit. Scooped the squash out of its skin and added that, as well as 4 or so sage leaves, let that simmer some more.

Once everything was relatively soft I picked out those sage leaves and buzzed it a bit with my immersion blender, adding stock until it blended smooth. As you can see above my soup is pretty thick, feel free to adjust to your preferences.

Added 3 or so sage leaves and let that simmer (or sputter, it's good to have a lid here as it will make a mess) until the sage was prominent enough for me, then adjusted my seasonings a bit and enjoyed with some sourdough bread.

This soup tastes so fall to me. Butternut may have been a little better (my bias), but this acorn was a lot more flavorful than the last one given to us by the CSA- maybe it was actually ripe this time?

I probably used about a cup of broth, I'll likely have another soup this week, as the chill is really starting to set in and there's nothing that I want more than comforting warm foods, especially ones that are excuses to buy and eat delicious crusty breads.

Delivery 22

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Beets - 2 pounds

Carrots - 1 pound

Red Russian Kale - 1 bunch

Purple Globe Turnips - 2

Flat Leaf Parsley - 1 bunch

Garlic - 2 heads

Acorn Winter Squash - 1

Popcorn - 4 cobs

Hot Peppers - take if you like

Red Russian Kale

Gorgeous! Kale with pecans. With smoked paprika. Kale chips. With buckwheat noodles.

Garlic

Guess. You'll probably be right.

Turnips

Believe it or not, I went for the smaller turnips, hoping to avoid the weird bitterness I had with the last big one. Slaw with carrots and apples. Slaw with carrots (bonus for parsley).

Acorn Squash

Soup with turnips. Soup with turnip chips. Soup with kale and bacon. What? I'm cold.

Popcorn

Note with the popcorn: let dry for three more weeks for best results. Um, thanks? I'll probably wait to bring this home to my parents', where there is a microwave.

Beets

Went for a bag with smaller beets. Salad with ginger. Salad with kale. Beet chips. Salad with potatoes.

Carrots

Boo orange carrots! Here's a slaw with beets (and beet greens, but I could use kale or something).

Potatoes

Ugh, potatoes. Part of me just wanted to swap these guys out for more garlic on the swap table. Here's fritters with turnips. Potato pancakes. Potato pizza dough. Or this potato cake (bonus for parsley).

Hot Peppers

Flat Leaf Parsley

I just kind of want to do wilted parsley on toast again.

186: Cabbage and Squash

As I sliced up my cabbage for the tuna salad, an idea stuck. I had a quarter of an acorn squash left over from risotto in my fridge- a vaguely fall flavor to be paired with another vaguely fall flavor. I was inspired by my balsamic braised cabbage dish a while back, but determined to nudge it to a more savory place. I'm not sure I succeeded, but I was happy to use up these ingredients, and I have a few ideas if I wanted to try this again.

Ingredients:

1/2 small head red cabbage, quartered, cored and sliced latitudinally into thin strips

1/4 acorn squash, peeled, seeded and sliced into 1/4" in cubes

1/2 onion, sliced thin

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 sprigs of rosemary

~ salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar

Began with the onions, squash and a little salt and oil in a pan. Sweat those for a few minutes, then added my cabbage and rosemary. Cooked this down until the cabbage and squash were nicely soft. Added pepper and a little cider vinegar to help brighten it up.

I didn't like it the night of- tasted too sweet for my mood and heavy on the vinegar- or maybe I was too stuffed up. But the next day it had mellowed out nicely. May still try a lighter touch or a different brightening agent if I were to try again. Or maybe there's something inherently too cloying about cooked down red cabbage- I had a similar problem with the balsamic dish I'd mentioned earlier but blamed it on the vinegar, but now I'm not so sure. Trials for another day.

182: Acorn Squash Risotto

Oh acorn squash. Is it just me or does this veggie not have much flavor? And a bit of a weird texture? Personal biases, for sure. I did a risotto that pretty much followed this recipe from Batali- a fact that I'm still mostly amused by having just finished Heat by Bill Buford.

Anyway. This didn't give me quite the flavor I wanted (would've loved a butternut squash...)- maybe a pre-roast would've helped (a la this recipe from Macheesmo), but I'd say texturally this is the happiest I've been with risotto. I think I need a larger pan so it's a little more wieldy, but it's the first time I've been able to pair the amount of stock with the amount of liquid my rice needed.

The changes I made: added some shallots at the beginning, as I had them from a share a few weeks ago. Used pecorino instead of parm, and less of it. Less butter. Also I added some rosemary to the broth mid-way through cooking to oomph the flavor a bit. Next time I'd do more, or earlier.

Bestest part: I have a bunch left over for risotto cakes! Almost the entire reason I ever want to make risotto.

Delivery 18

Leeks - 1 bunch

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Broccoli - 2 bunches

Acorn Winter Squash - 1

Lettuce - 1 head Exchanged for another bunch of radishes

Bok Choy - 1 head

Radish - 1 bunch

Rosemary - 1 bunch

Purple Globe Turnips with Greens - 1 bunch

Hot Habanero Peppers - take them if you like

Red Cabbage - 1 head

Peppers - 2

Cauliflower - 1

Broccoli

Once again these were kind of ...floppy. I found the last batch pretty bitter, but at least there's a decent amount this time so I didn't swap them out. A few decent contenders for recipes, too: Pizza (with potatoes and rosemary), cooked forever, roasted with mustard.

Bok Choy

I'm on a salad kick lately (week long detoxes to make up for the crazy indulgence of the weekend wherein I eat all the bread, eggs, caramel sauce and butter), so a simple raw salad may be in order. Or cooked with broccoli.

Cauliflower

Crazy/amazing roundup from the Guardian, some of which will get made, but maybe not this week as I've found cauliflower and eggs with tomato sauce! Or there's roasted with ginger and mint.

Turnips

I'm not sure I've ever cooked turnips before. No wait, I did once, just roasted as a "Hey! These are cheap, let's add them to the weekly veggie roast" a few years ago. Looking to do something a little more exciting with them now. Here are options: with orange and hazlenuts, soup with leeks, mashed with potatoes and leeks, pickles, and Moroccan! Loving the looks of those greens, too.

Radish

I have four of these guys earmarked, as for what to do with the rest: easy with turnips, a pizza (pizzas are the new biscuits. also a bit of a cop out, but cacio e pepe is a great flavor profile), Indian flatbread (!), and then this weird weird bread I don't think I'll ever make, but wanted to share.

Potatoes 

Fritters with turnips, doing a more traditional potato pancake. Getting a lot of potatoesed out. Maybe I'll make bread and bring it to work to get rid of it: here are a bunch of recipes (and a German one).

Leeks

Going back to the archives a bit, but leek confit perhaps. Though a ton of recipes I've already listed use them, so I doubt I'll have trouble.

Red Cabbage

There were a few that I mentioned last time I would like to get back to: peanut/lime salad or sweet and sour. Galette with onions and feta.

Acorn Squash

Soup with Turnips, there's always a plain ol' roast as well. Or risotto.

Rosemary

I'm having trouble using all my herbs again. Still have a bunch of thyme from last week. I may whip up another batch of herb butter, just so I don't feel so bad about the sheet volume that exists in the crisper. Would also work well with potatoes and squash.

Peppers

I keep picking up tons of hot peppers without a plan in mind- though I used some in my chili verde. There are still some roasted from last week in my fridge. Let's pretend I'll make hot sauce, shall we?