There we were in Costco and in front of me was a box of chopped butternut squash. I wasn't certain I could find the recipe that triggered my desire to buy the box but I figured the worst that could happen was butternut squash soup. At the same time I bought a bag of cranberries. I do love fresh cranberry season. We use a few bags and toss a few more into the freezer for the mid-summer fresh cranberry craving that inevitably happens. I knew there was a magazine with a herd of cranberry recipes that'd sounded good. Was I ever in luck. Not only was said magazine on my hassock, the butternut squash recipe was for both butternut squash AND cranberries.
The recipe came together VERY easily. Other than adding the blue cheese before baking, I followed it to a "T." I let the tart sit the prescribed 10 minutes after baking and it was still a bit runny. But, the flavor was still magnificent.
Butternut Squash and Cranberry Tart
Ingredients
1 pie crust
2 cups diced butternut squash
1 1/2 c fresh or frozen cranberries
3/4 c diced red onion
2 T honey
1 T olive oil
2 t minced fresh sage
1/2 c grated Parmesan
1/2 c crumbled blue cheese
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 450. Put the pie crust in a pie plate and crimp the edges. Sprinkle the grated Parmesan over the pie crust.
In a medium bowl toss together everything else but the blue cheese.
Pour the butternut squash mixture into the pie shell. Top it with the crumbled blue cheese.
Bake 30 minutes. This is best if you let it cool for 10-15 minutes so it's not so runny. NB: the recipe called for 1/3 c blue cheese and for sprinkling it on after the tart bakes. Your choice!
adapted from Cuisine at Home
I get a recipe emailed to me every day from Fine Cooking. Let's see, I also get The Dish from Food and Wine and a newsletter from my favorite wine guy - aka the Wine Guy at Grapevine Cottage. Plus, about five other email newsletters, 10 cooking magazines and a couple hundred ideas on Foodbuzz. I own over 1000 cookbooks. Plus, I regularly come up with ideas for new dishes. And, we can't forget our old favorites. All in all not a dearth of recipe ideas! More like a tsunami! When I clip recipes I sort them into immediate, soon and later, knowing that I might as well toss the laters :-) Consequently, a recipe has to look pretty darned good to me to make it to the menu list. Even then, there's no guarantee it'll get made. This autumn vegetable soup sounded so good that it immediately made it to the top of the list.
A couple of weekends ago, I made one old favorite - Eggplant Involtini, a standard (thank you, Molly, it's all your fault) - chili and this newbie - Autumn Vegetable Soup. The eggplant was for dinner, with leftovers for Connie a couple of evenings this week while I'm at grip and grins. (Smile broadly, hold your hand out to shake and say, "Hi, I'm ______" That's what you do at a grip and grin.) The chili and soup were for lunches during the week. I got the Autumn Vegetable soup recipe a couple of weeks ago in the Fine Cooking email. It stayed on my desktop until I was ready to make it last weekend. I'd decided to make it since we have a lovely kale plant out front and had a great volunteer butternut squash vine. Then, we got a huge bag of kale in the CSA box Saturday. Ok, time to get it made.
What did we think? This is great and will be even better after sitting in the fridge for 24 hours. I added a can of pumpkin puree to the soup. It kicks up the flavor without making the soup cloying. I'm tempted to try adding a bit of cinnamon or nutmeg to the leftovers - or I may just increase the amount of allspice.
One funny note - it's tough to see her, but Annie is sitting on the rug back by the bar. She knows no dogs are allowed in the kitchen and that it's wise to stay out of my path to the pantry when I'm cooking. So, she sits back on that rug just hoping there's a dog treat somewhere...
Autumn Vegetable Soup
Ingredients:
2T olive oil
3 medium carrots, chopped
1 large onion, diced
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and diced (2 1/2 cups)
1/4 t ground allspice
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 t thyme
14 oz can pumpkin puree
4 c chicken stock (or chicken broth)
2 c coarsely chopped kale
14 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Directions:
Saute the carrots and onions in the olive oil in a stock pot. After about 10 min when they have softened, add the butternut squash, seasonings, pumpkin and stock. Simmer for about 15 minutes until squash is cooked. Add the kale and chickpeas and simmer until the kale is softened. Serve with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.
adapted from Elie Krieger on Fine Cooking
