Squash Soup Forever

Cold weather does really mean soup, and i haven't really been making too much of it as i have been eating pho, ramen and udon soups a lot lately. And yes these are the student kind - the kind your boil... so much sodium. So i thought it was time i actually made my own. (again)

So much chopping - i swear my arm was tired.

(squash, sweet onion, potato)

And voila

(don't know where the other pics went)

Squash Enchiladas - Potluck specialty

I know - i know, i've been terrible. To be honest i've been eating terrible things and am rarely home during meal times. I am going to try and cook more for myself, because i have honestly been terrible. Luckily i had a few meals over the holiday that i can throw in - but i promise i'll do a little better. On an interesting note- this is one year for me! (kinda cool)

So i had my company's United Way potluck, and even though i am at school most of the time, i had no classes so i thought i would go. I didn't really have a plan until the day before when i decided to make squash enchiladas - i had never made them the day before and i was a little worried how to heat them (we have no oven) and how well the corn tortilla would stand up. But i did it anyway.

So here is my recipe for butternut squash enchiladas:

Ingredients

First i peel and cut into similar size cubes the squash. I also roughly chop a sweet onion. I tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and some cumin. I always line my pans with parchment paper - it keeps all the juices in, and is super easy to clean up. Into the oven at 450.

Here they are out of the oven. A little brown and easy to pierce with a fork. I also did a head of garlic separately in a ramekin.

For the filling, just squash is kinda repetitive, so i mix mine with cream cheese (light),chipotle sauce, the garlic, salsa, and just because i had a can, and they keep falling out of the cupboards and nearly knocking me out - tomatillos.

One hint, make sure you hold back some of the squash, so you can make it thicker if you've put too much liquid like i did with the tomatillos.


Once the squash filling was finished, i then did the rest of the ingredients for the tortillas. Green onions, lettuce tomatoes, jalapenos and extra old white cheddar.

Here are all the ingredients ready for the assembly. Making this dish is kinda repetitive, so for efficiency its best to have everything ready before you start to put the dish together.

In a dry non-stick hot pan i heated up the tortillas, turning often.

Here is my assembly line

Tortillas

Squash Filling

Other Fillings

Enchilada Pan

I coated the bottom of the enchilada pan with some of the filling, some salsa and a few green onions and tomatoes. I then began to make each tortilla role by adding all of the ingredients assembled.

Role it tightly and lay in the pan seam down. Repeat until the pan is full, then coat with remainder of squash (you might have a little extra) veggies and cheese. Bake covered until bubbling, then remove foil and allow to brown a little.


I ended up cooking them half way - then the day of doing them again. They were okay - i know they can be a lot better - so perhaps not a night before things. Also i though i was gentle with the spicing, but a few people thought it had a lot of kick. Something to remember when cooking for pot lucks - not everyone likes it hot.

Thanksgiving a little late

Yeah, i'm a little late getting my thanksgiving pictures up - a few weeks in fact, but here they are. We had quite a mix of foods, an although my bother had sworn off doing turkey she broke down and got a little one. I didn't try any, but i think those who ate it enjoyed it. There were also three types of pies... guess everyone wanted to bring pie... (i didn't)


Since we are such a traditional family, not only did we have turkey and squash, we also had ribs. For some reason, with my family ribs are a tradition.

The little turkey

Cutting up the little turkey

potatoes, pie and squash in the oven

Sauce and stuffing (yum)

The Sides

Squash Quesadillas and Shrimp tacos

I used to make squash enchilladas with a mixture of roasted squash, roasted garlic, chipotle and cream cheese - i decided to use some left over squash that we had baked and make quesadillas with these. I used a similar mixture, and grilled them. I served them with a lime chipotle sour cream. I also made shrimp tacos which were tasty as always!

For a side dish i made a black bean and corn salad. I added some cucumbers, cilantro, jaleponas and red onions. I basically used the sour cream dip from the squash and dressed the salad, using more lime that in the dip.

the roasted squash

Quesadilla ingredients (and a spritzer for the chef)

shrimp on the bbq

grilled shrimp

salad

taco toppings

finished quesadillas

Butternut Squash Soup

As its gotten pretty cold again, i felt like something hearty and warm - and what better thing to make but soup. I had bought a butternut squash a few weeks ago, and those things never go bad so i knew i would eventually get to use it. This soup was a bit of a mish-mash as i just used some of the ingredients i had left over in the fridge; half a sweet potato, some shredded carrots and roasted a head of garlic. I thought i would make it a thai curry soup with some coconut milk and then part way through making it i realized that i wanted to add some peanut butter to it too. I generally don't use a recipe while making most soups unless its one i've never made before and is really specific.

Normally i would have roasted the vegetables, but after my oven-fire alarm incident yesterday i thought i would give my neighbours a break. I stared with sauteing the onions and carrots to soften them, adding the red thai curry paste cooking it till fragrant. I then added the squash and sweet potato, sauteing them a little while longer. I added the veggie stock (low sodium and organic of course) bringing it to a boil.

Once the veggies were soft i added the coconut milk. I actually use powdered coconut milk - i often find that the cans are not only high in fat its often too much and i end up wasting the rest of the can. I also added the roasted garlic and peanut butter a this point. When you're using peanut butter in a soup i have two hints - first use natural peanut butter, a lot of brands have icing sugar in them. Second mix the peanut butter with some of the coconut milk to make it easier to blend into the soup.

Then i used my immersion blender and blended the soup until smooth. You could also use a blender and do it in batches. I then heated it through again thoroughly.

Above:

Soup
Roasted garlic (yum)
Ingredients
Ingredients chopped
Cooking the veggies