sel et sucre

Tag: autumn

  • Ginger Butternut Squash Soup

    ginger butternut squash soup

    I love bright, colorful food. Not only does it evoke a much better visual response to a dish, making me excited to delve in, but colorful foods are also usually the healthiest ones – win, win! So here’s a nice colorful soup, using bright orange butternut squash as the base. Carrots and red lentils add to the delightful orange hue, and ginger provides the main flavoring (you can add even more than the recipe calls for, if you’d like, or stir in ginger juice (from grated ginger, wrapped in cheesecloth and squeezed) at the end). A squeeze of lemon or lime juice (either will work just fine – or even a splash of vinegar, in a pinch) helps contrast the sweetness of the squash. You can also stir in a little plain yogurt, which the original recipe called for, but I didn’t find necessary. Instead, I topped my soup with pepitas for a pop of contrast in color and texture.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Fall Salad with Butternut Squash, Apples, and Blue Cheese

    fall salad with butternut squash apples and blue cheese

    I’m starting to miss fall. Winter, I don’t mind skipping – bitter cold and biting wind, all the color sucked out of everything, and root vegetables and leafy greens the only thing in season (and even those shipped from milder climates further south). But fall is pleasantly cool with gorgeously tinted leaves and matching squashes of various shapes and sizes, driving an hour or two to taste crisp apples straight from the tree, and cinnamon-scented everything. I’ve been craving seasonal fall dishes. So I decided, despite the rising temperatures here, to put together this fall salad. Everything was easily available here (except for the radicchio called for in the original recipe which I chose to replace with red cabbage, for color, and arugula, for bite), and the end result has a great mix of flavors and textures. Butternut squash roasted with brown sugar for extra sweetness and ancho chile powder for spice, as well as sweetness from a honey garlic vinaigrette and apple slices, but all balanced by spicy arugula and crisp cabbage, the crunch of pepitas, and the funkiness of blue cheese. Not quite your typical fall salad, but a great remedy for my homesick self.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Kaddo Bourani

    kaddo bourani

    We’re approaching the end of pumpkin season, so I’ve been posting my very best pumpkin recipes last week and this week. Luckily, pumpkins keep well for a couple months (and my pumpkin puree will keep good for 6 months or more when frozen) which means after you buy up those last pumpkins, you’ll have ample time to cook these delicious recipes!

    Kaddo bourani is a delicious Afghan dish that plays around with very unusual flavor combinations. Sweet pumpkin mingles here with cinnamon, topped with mint garlic yogurt and a coriander-laced tomato sauce. This seemingly disparate combination manages to come together seamlessly. Traditionally, the tomato sauce has ground beef in it, but I’ve done a vegetarian version here, substituting with a can of kidney beans. This dish also works as an appetizer without the tomato sauce.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Pumpkin Kibbe

    pumpkin kibbe

    We’re approaching the end of pumpkin season, so I’ve been posting my very best pumpkin recipes last week and this week. Luckily, pumpkins keep well for a couple months (and my pumpkin puree will keep good for 6 months or more when frozen) which means after you buy up those last pumpkins, you’ll have ample time to cook these delicious recipes!

    This recipe marks my 50th post on this blog, and I’m very excited to be posting a family recipe, passed on to me from my dad. Kibbe is a traditional Lebanese dish, usually made with ground lamb and bulgur wheat. This vegetarian version substitutes pumpkin puree for the ground lamb. Although I’ve always been an adventurous eater, I used to turn my nose up at this dish when my parents made it, simply because I love lamb kibbe so much. I’ve since come around and now absolutely love pumpkin kibbe as well! The only change I’ve made from how my grandmother in Lebanon cooks this dish is to sautee the onions before laying them in the bottom of the pan (I can’t help myself; I just love caramelized onions).

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Pumpkin Risotto

    pumpkin risotto

    We’re approaching the end of pumpkin season, so I’ve been posting my very best pumpkin recipes last week and this week. Luckily, pumpkins keep well for a couple months (and my pumpkin puree will keep good for 6 months or more when frozen) which means after you buy up those last pumpkins, you’ll have ample time to cook these delicious recipes!

    I can see why pumpkin (and butternut squash) risotto shows up on a lot of menus around this time of year. This restaurant darling is fairly simple to make and packed with flavor, and the risotto easily takes on a beautiful orange color from the pumpkin puree. In this rendition, fresh ginger plays a subtle background note to the rich pumpkin flavor. This dish makes for a filling vegetarian main course or a great side along a cut of steak.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Pumpkin Puree

    pumpkin puree

    We’re approaching the end of pumpkin season, so I’ll be posting my very best pumpkin recipes this week and next week. Luckily, pumpkins keep well for a couple months (and the pumpkin puree in today’s recipe will keep good for 6 months or more when frozen) which means after you buy up those last pumpkins, you’ll have ample time to cook these delicious recipes!

    When I was growing up, we never carved jack-o-lanterns; instead my parents would buy sugar pie pumpkins, and we’d draw on them with glow in the dark fabric paint. That way, after Halloween, my mom could roast the pumpkins to make puree. It almost feels a little silly to bother posting a recipe for pumpkin puree because it’s so easy, but since it’s a key ingredient in many recipes, here it is. You can really use any size pumpkin here – I roasted a 12-lb monster the other day and it gave me nearly 10 cups of puree. Most of the time, I’m sure that the canned puree suffices just fine, but I love going the extra step and making my own. It might all be in my head, but I feel like the fresh stuff has more flavor to it and tastes more squash-like – though this probably also depends on the variety of pumpkin you use. This puree is not only good for traditional pumpkin pies; I’ll be posting some less traditional recipes using it in the next couple weeks, and you can also stir it into yogurt or oatmeal.

    (more…)

    Related Posts:

  • Lentil and Sweet Potato Salad

    lentil sweet potato salad

    Up to the last minute, I was debating what to call this salad. The simple “Lentil and Sweet Potato Salad,” the slightly more intriguing “Warm Lentil and Sweet Potato Salad,” or the fully informative “Warm Lentil and Sweet Potato Salad with Maple Vinaigrette.” I ultimately went with simplicity, but I want to make sure to give due credit to all the components that make this salad so very tasty. Served warm (or at room temperature), the flavors here feel very seasonally appropriate for autumn. The maple syrup and mustard harmonize seamlessly in the vinaigrette, playing nicely on top of the lentils’ and sweet potatoes’ earthiness. Something I love about lentils is that they leaving me feeling full but not lethargic which makes this salad work perfectly as a lunch. This would also be a great side along a cut of steak (for the meat-inclined) or some grilled portabella mushrooms.

    (more…)

    Related Posts: