Butternut Squash and Arugula Pizza

I made my own pizza!  From scratch!

The recipe for the clean, whole-wheat pizza dough was from Eat Live Run.  I changed it a little, substituting whole-wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose flour, and using only 1 teaspoon of salt rather than 1.5 teaspoons.  It came out great!  My husband suggested rolling it a bit thinner next time, but it was otherwise excellent.

For the toppings, I used mashed-up butternut squash and some garlic for the sauce, and then topped it with caramelized onions and fresh mozzarella.  The onions I caramelized on the stove top by cooking them over medium heat with a bit of olive oil for almost an hour.

2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/3 cup warm water
1 packet yeast
1 tsp sea salt

In a mixing bowl, combine the warm water and yeast.

Stir in the salt, flour, and olive oil and mix by hand. Knead for 8 minutes or until dough is soft and elastic.

Take the dough out of the bowl, rub with olive oil, and then place back in the bowl.

Cover with a dish towel and let rise for one hour.

After the dough has doubled in size, cut in half to make two large pizza doughs or make mini doughs.  Roll out the dough and pinch the edges to form a crust.

Cover with your toppings and bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes.

I topped mine with butternut squash and garlic as "sauce", mozzarella, carmelized onions, and cracked black pepper. Then I put it in the oven to cook.

At ten minutes, I took the pizza out and added arugula. Add more than you think you'll need; it wilts down considerably.

At fifteen minutes, the pizza was perfectly done. Crisp crust with sweet toppings!

Delicious!

Autumn Salsa

I always like to have an appetizer or two available for people to munch on when they first arrive for Thanksgiving.  But I've found that no one wants anything heavy because they're saving their appetites for the meal to come!

This autumn salsa, which was inspired by this recipe for butternut squash salsa, combines some of my favorite fall flavors, and is perfect for snacking before the feast.

Teaspoon of olive oil
Teaspoon of nutmeg
Half a butternut squash, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
1 apple, diced and dredged in orange juice to prevent browning
1 pomegranate's worth of pomegranate arils
White vinegar (to taste, about 2 tablespoons)
Honey (to taste, about 2 tablespoons)
Parsley (to taste)

Coat the butternut squash in olive oil and nutmeg.  Roast at 325 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Combine squash, onion, apple, and pomegranate arils in a bowl.

Add vinegar and honey and mix well to coat.

Add parsley and serve with blue-corn tortilla chips.

So pretty and unexpected!

Butternut Squash and Green Apple Soup

After my last death-defying experience cutting up a butternut squash, I have to admit that I nearly succumbed to the oh-so-tempting, pre-peeled, pre-cut cubes that I found at Whole Foods. I even put the packaged butternut goodness IN MY CART.

But I know that when I have my CSA next year, I won't have that choice: I'll have to man up and face the squash. So out went the beautiful, golden hunks wrapped in cellophane and styrofoam (eek! are we still using styrofoam?) and in went the fresh-from-the-ground, whole butternut squash.

When I got home and got out my huge knife, I had a pang of regret. When I tried to scoop the flesh out of the skin and it kept getting stuck, I had more than a pang of regret.

But it was worth it. I'm finding that there is nothing more satisfying than starting with a whole food and ending up with a finished meal. Especially when it's really hard to do.

Cutting the butternut squash was really the only hard part about my butternut squash and green apple soup. I started with this recipe, and then made it my own.

1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 rib of celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, chopped
2 tart green apples, peeled, cored, chopped (chop second apple only just before serving)
3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 teaspoon garam masala

Set a large saucepan over medium-high heat and heat the olive oil. Add the onion, celery and carrot and sauté for 5 minutes, taking care to turn the heat down if the vegetables begin to brown.

Add squash, 1 chopped apple, broth and water. Bring to boil. Cover, turn the heat down to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes or until squash and carrots soften. Puree with an immersion blender.

Serve into bowls, sprinkle with garam masala, and top with chopped apples (it is best if you chop the apple right before serving so that none of the pieces turns brown).

This beautiful soup was really easy to stay on top of while entertaining (read: drinking wine), but looked and tasted special for a nice dinner with friends.

Nutty Vanilla Butternut Squash & Kale Soup

Last weekend, I bought a bag of kale, an acorn squash, a butternut squash, and a spaghetti squash from Trader Joe’s. I was hoping to prove to myself that I could be overwhelmed with fresh, seasonal vegetables that I don’t usually eat, and find something to do with them anyway. I arrived home from work last night to find both the butternut squash and the spaghetti squash getting a little weird and mushy in spots. It was time to cook them before it would be too late!



The spaghetti squash was easy. I had cooked those before. I halved the squash (which took two knives and a high risk of personal impalement), scooped out the seeds, rubbed it with olive oil, and cooked it cut-side down on a baking sheet for 30 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees. Once the squash itself was in the oven, I cleaned the seeds and popped them in, too. They took about ten minutes to toast.





When the spaghetti squash came out of the oven, I let it cool and then scraped it with a fork into a plastic container. I put it straight in the fridge. I’ll figure out what to do with those gorgeous strands some other time.

Meanwhile, I was making somewhat more complex (but still easy!) Nutty Vanilla Butternut Squash and Kale Soup. The recipe was inspired by this recipe for Nutty Vanilla Sweet Potato and Kale Soup, and the comments on it, which suggested that it was possible to use butternut squash instead of sweet potato. I actually arrived that the recipe via This & That, a blog about cooking produce from the same CSA I just joined!

Ingredients:
1 large butternut squash
1 teaspoon of chopped garlic
1 can lite coconut milk
1 cup 1-percent milk
1 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
4 cups kale, trimmed, washed and torn into small pieces
1 vanilla bean
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup unsalted peanuts, for garnish
Shredded coconut, for garnish

Preparation:

Halve the butternut squash, scoop out the seeds, and then cook in the microwave for 15 minutes.



Heat a large pot on medium high. Spray with cooking spray and add squash (scooped out of the skin), cooking until it begins to brown. Stir in garlic.

Add coconut milk, milk, allspice, pepper and flakes.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Mash squash with potato masher or puree with immersion blender.

Add raisins, kale and vanilla and cover. Allow to cook for 8-10 more minutes, until kale is bright green.

Portion into bowls and garnish with 1 tbsp each peanuts and coconut.



The soup turned out fragrant and delicious, and was an excellent use of the butternut squash. My veggie-phobic husband ate his entire bowl (including the kale!) and even sopped up the remaining broth with a piece of bread. This was his first experience with kale, and he declared it “okay.” That’s very high praise from him!

The CSA Virgin really hates to “diagnose” her food. She would prefer to make a recipe, enjoy it, and be done. But, admittedly, there was room for improvement on this otherwise excellent concept. The soup came out a little thick (perhaps because of the substitution of butternut squash for sweet potatoes), so I think I’ll add a little water or vegetable broth to thin it next time. Neither my husband nor I is a big fan of thick, creamy soup.

The original recipe called for garam masala (an Indian spice blend). While I’d like to say that I used allspice because I didn’t have, or couldn’t find, garam masala, that’s not true. CSA Virgin purchased BOTH allspice AND garam masala at Whole Foods, and then grabbed the wrong one when she started to cook. Not a fatal error, but one I might correct next time.

Overall, I think my squash night was successful. I now have two bowls’ worth of Nutty Vanilla Butternut Squash and Kale Soup and an entire squash’s worth of spaghetti in the fridge.

Normally, the fridge is looking a little bare by the end of the work week, but not this week!