Chipotle-Miso Butternut Squash Soup

CHIPOTLE-MISO butternut SQUASH SOUP

I know, I know - chipotle plus miso?? Obviously, this has no root in real tradition, but those flavors together are literally incredible, something I first played around with in my mind before putting them together. I love creating new soup recipes during squash season - that sweetness is the perfect canvas for spices and flavor. Squash creates such a lush, smooth, silky texture without even adding any cream so it’s the perfect option for dairy-free days.

The recipe below is for a spiced butternut squash soup, but you can easily substitute pumpkin, honeynut or kabocha squash for this recipe. Most soups call for roasting the squash first, but I skip that step here. The cubed, raw squash cooks up while it's simmering with all of the great flavors here. I love the smokiness and heat of the chipotle mixed with the umami and sweetness of the miso. Such a great, quick weeknight meal. I served it along with my pan de coco (coconut bread subbing coconut milk in this recipe)….sooooooo good!

Serves 4 to 6

2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 shallot, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 butternut squash, halved and seeded and cut into a 1-inch dice (optional: save the seeds for garnish)*
1/4 cup mirin**
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 tablespoons white shiro miso**
1 chipotle in adobo (canned)
Salt and lemon juice, to taste
chopped chives, for garnish

In a soup pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add onion and shallot
with a pinch of salt and cook for 5 to 7 minutes until translucent. Add the
garlic and the brown sugar and cook for another minute.

Add in the cubed squash along with the mirin and cook for 2 to 3 minutes
until the wine has mostly absorbed. Add the stock and bring up to a simmer.
Simmer for 35 minutes, partially covered, until all of the squash are
tender.

Add in the miso and chipotle and transfer to a blender or use a hand blender
to puree to your desired consistency. Season with salt and adjust acidity with lemon juice if necessary..

Serve sprinkled with chives & toasted seeds (if using).

* To toast the squash seeds, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Clean seeds of any pulp and dry on paper towels. Toss the seeds with oil, salt, cumin and smoked paprika. Toast in oven until golden brown about 10-15 minutes. Let cool on a tray and set aside for garnish on soup.

** Mirin is a type of Japanese rice wine. This along with the miso can be found at Whole Foods or a specialty / Asian grocer.

The Very Versatile Winter Squash

THE VERY VERSATILE WINTER SQUASH

The leaves are changing colors, the air has a cool crisp smell to it and the farmers' market is booming with a ton of winter squashes. Nothing says cold weather comfort food than a great squash soup, roasted root vegetables with your Sunday supper or a nice, warming Indian curry. The only difficulty is choosing which squash to use in your dish! I put together a few of my favorite ways to bring some warmth to your dinner table this winter.

SOUPS

The first weekend of October has passed, and the heating has kicked in. You know winter is looming around the corner, and the upside is that it’s perfect soup-making (and eating!) weather. Everyone loves a great squash soup; they are so versatile, being sweet and savory, and take easily to different cuisines depending on the spices you use. My Sopa de Flor de Calabaza (Squash Blossom Soup), inspired by a traditional Mexican soup, is a delicious, silky and rich soup without any cream that uses butternut squash. Another warm and comforting soup is my Pumpkin Soup with Garam Masala & Creme Fraiche. This soup uses the traditional South Asian spice blend, garam masala (it’s spicy and full-flavored but has no real heat to it), and the warming spices in the blend pair perfectly with pumpkin.

ROASTED

Roasting squash is a no brainer, and cut into pieces, a good squash only needs about 20 to 30 minutes in a 400° F oven. Of course, the old standby butternut is fantastic here, but kabocha, which is an Asian variety of winter squash, is also delicious. It has a strong and sweet flavor that pairs well with spices. Delicata is another great options because it has super thin skin and is really easy to peel.

Above is a photo from my cookbook for a savoury, winter vegetable crumble; roasted squash on its own would be delicious with a salty, Parmesan-laced crumble topping.. The great thing about roasted squash is you can eat it as is, purée it (see below), stuff it before roasting, make it into a hash by itself or with sweet potatoes or even toss it into a salad that day or the next! I personally love this Miso Harissa Delicata Squash salad recipe.

PURÉES

Another great use for winter squashes is purées. They make a great substitute for the stand-by mashed potato side and are beyond easy to make. This recipe is the most basic - a great building block in your kitchen arsenal that you can tailor to your tastes. A few ideas: add roasted garlic, truffle oil, chopped olives, pickled chilies or sprinkle with za'atar to make it extra special.

CURRY

To me, nothing is more satisfy or warming to the soul than curling up on the couch with my pajamas, a good movie, or book, and a hearty bowl of curry and rice. Curries originate from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. They can be wet or dry with wet curries resembling stews in a significant amount of sauce and dry curries cooked with little liquid that evaporates and leaves a coating on the ingredients. Curries usually involve a variety of spices with the main spices being turmeric, coriander, and cumin on the Indian side of things; chili is always a player. Southeast Asian curries make use of different chili pastes and other herbs, aromatics and spices like kaffir, lemongrass, and galangal. Lucky for us, squashes play well with all different types of curry. Check out this one for Acorn Squash with Fenugreek, Chili, and Amchur.

PASTA

When the weather turns cool, who doesn’t love coming home to lasagna or a big bowl of pasta on the table? To make traditional lasagna a bit more interesting, try adding some squash in between the lush layers of pasta, cheese and sauce. OR get a bit more advanced and try this gnocchi. If gluten isn't your thing, spaghetti squash makes a fantastic substitute. Raw, it looks just like other squashes on the inside, but after it is cooked the insides fall out in ribbons resembling spaghetti. This recipe uses the spaghetti squash as the star of the “pasta dish”.

DESSERTS & BREADS

Being such a versatile vegetable, squashes can also find themselves in the dessert category. Hello…..pumpkin pie anyone!? But don’t just let the pumpkins have all the fun in the pies, butternut and acorn squash can hold their own in this category too! Try my bread recipe using butternut squash with apples and maple to make a delicious moist bread to serve with afternoon tea.

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash & Apple Bread with Maple and Cardamom

I posted a photo of this on Instagram a few days back, and a number of people came back and asked for this recipe to bake for the holidays. And here it is! It’s a bit lighter than other fruit or vegetable breads (think: cake), and relies much more on butternut squash than apple for flavor. That said, the great thing about this bread is that the squash doesn’t have to be precooked or pureed or anything before being added in. Grating it up in a processor does all the work you need, and the squash cooks in the baking time.

I made this cake for my daughter, who hated squash (until now…hah!). And for that reason, I changed out the flour using an “all purpose” mix of oat, brown rice, and almond flours. Really, it isn’t so much about the gluten, though being gluten free is a benefit for some here. It’s more about the fact that oats and brown rice and almonds have a lot more nutritional value than AP flour. Same goes for the maple sugar, a sugar from the maple tree that has a flavor very close to the syrup. Again, maple sugar has antioxidants and minerals not found in refined sugar. It has a lower glycemic index, and I always use a lot less of it in recipes.

These are just my choices, but feel free to use all purpose flour here and substitute another sugar if you can’t find maple. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields 1 8½” x 4¼” x 2¾” loaf pan

2 cups raw, peeled, and grated butternut squash

1 cup peeled, cored and grated apple

scant 1 cup maple sugar

1 cup oat flour

½ cup brown rice flour

½ cup almond flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cardamom

½ tsp baking soda

2 tsps baking powder

¼ cup organic, unrefined coconut oil or ½ stick butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, room temperature

Procedure

Preheat oven to 375˚ F.

Place grated squash and apple in a bowl along with 3 tablespoons of the maple sugar. Stir to combine and let stand to macerate for 15 minutes.

In another bowl, sift together flours with salt, spices, baking soda and baking powder.

In a stand mixer, cream together remaining sugar and coconut oil or butter. With mixer on medium-low, add vanilla and then the eggs one at a time. Turn mixer down to low, and add in the flour in three increments, stopping to scrape down the sides. Mix until almost combined. Fold in the macerated squash and apple with any liquid that’s accumulated and mix until thoroughly combined.

Pour batter into a greased loaf pan, and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool before unmolding.

Frittata with Caramelized Garlic, Squash & Aleppo

Frittata with Caramelized Garlic, Butternut Squash & Aleppo

One thing I get asked about all the time is how to incorporate spices into your every day foods. I write here a lot about “exotic” spices or ingredients, and the reality is I do cook with them all of the time. It doesn’t have to be a special occasion. It doesn’t even have to be an overtly ethnic dish. I like the foods everyone else does, but I tend to add a little something extra to them.

This frittata with caramelized garlic (like savoury candy!) and butternut squash is the perfect example. Wait, I need to reiterate how ridiculously delicious caramelized garlic is. This recipe is exact, but I encourage you to double the garlic portion and save half for other dishes later in the week – it’s like balsamic-y, glazed, nutty goodness and the cloves are fantastic on a salad, as part of a cheese plate, or worked into a pork or lamb chop sauce.

In any case, back to spices…here I use Aleppo chili flakes for heat. These are my go-to-on-top-of-pizza chili flake and just have a really sweet, mild flavor. Pairing this with a bit of smoked Spanish paprika brings a real richness to the dish; the scent as it’s cooking is maddening (particularly if you are starving like I was when I made this).

I love the idea of working a fall squash into breakfast, and this is a fantastic dish to entertain with for a brunch. I used grana padano cheese here because it’s delicate, and there are so many outspoken flavors here: the caramelized garlic adds that savoury / sweet quality as does the butternut squash, the chilis and paprika a bit of smokiness and heat and the scallions that bright finish. This is definitely one of my Sunday morning fall faves…Enjoy!

Ingredients

Serves 6 to 8

Caramelized garlic:

15 – 20 whole garlic cloves

¾ cup milk

1 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tsps olive oil

2 tsps balsamic vinegar

½ cup water

2 tsps sugar

pinch salt

pinch Aleppo chili flakes

Frittata:

2 cups butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into a ½” dice

olive oil

salt

freshly ground black pepper

10 eggs

½ cup crème fraiche

2 tsps pimentón de la Vera (smoked Spanish paprika)

1 tbsp Aleppo chili flakes

1 cup grana padano cheese, grated*

½ cup mozzarella, shredded

2 tbsps scallions or chives, green parts only, finely chopped

1 ¼ tsp salt

Procedure

Preheat oven to 375° F.

In a small saucepan, add whole garlic cloves and milk. Bring up to a simmer and simmer for 5 minutes. Be careful it doesn’t boil over!

Strain and rinse garlic cloves. Wipe out saucepan and place back over medium heat. Add butter and oil. When hot, add garlic and sauté for 5 minutes. Add remaining caramelized garlic ingredients and simmer until almost all of the liquid is reduced and the cloves are dry. Swirl the garlic in the pan from time to time during this process to keep from sticking and to make sure the cloves cook evenly. Strain off any excess liquid and set aside.

In an ovenproof skillet, toss together the squash cubes with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until squash is fork tender.

In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients, reserving ¼ cup of the grated cheese. Add to the hot skillet with the squash. Top with the remaining cheese and a sprinkle of salt and place back in the oven. Cook at this temperature for 15 minutes and increase the temperature to 425° F for another 5 minutes. Serve warm.

*You can substitute in Parmigiano Reggiano or any other grated hard cheese you like.

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