squash — Blog — uprooted kitchen blog

A salad my niece made, with vegan dressing.

Thanksgiving? But, you say (I can hear you), it's almost Christmas! The excuse of my life, but I have been busy. In any case, if I post my dishes from Thanksgiving I can hopefully help you bring some ideas for Christmas dinner to the table (quite literally).

This was my first major food holiday being vegan, and it went quite well. My sister-in-law and niece (who's becoming quite the chef/baker) intentionally made some vegan dishes which was amazing! I didn't anticipate getting stuffed to the gills, like I usually do, but I did so I count that as a success!

Dish #1: Whole roasted parsnips (from Kirsop Farm). I rinsed, cut off the ends, tossed in sunflower oil, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and ground rosemary (grown by my friend Maggie, dried and ground by myself; super fresh). I actually roasted these in our toaster oven (out of necessity, because holiday baking), so it was good to know that it works.

Dish #2: Butternut squash wedges (squash from Alvarez Farms). I peeled the squash (tip: using a carrot peeler works a lot better than using a knife, like I'd been doing for years!), cut it in half and deseeded it, and chopped it into wedges (think potato wedges, but you just have to work with the contours of the squash). Then I tossed the wedges in sunflower oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and freshly chopped sage. I baked them for about 45 minutes and accidentally broiled them for half the time, which worked out well as it gave them some crispness.

Dish #3: Lime Cheesecake, from The Splendid Table website. I'm still trying to perfect my vegan cheesecakes. My goal is to get them as smooth and creamy as Liberation Bakery, so I'll just keep buying theirs at the Ballard Farmers Market for motivation and, of course, for deliciousness.

This crust has so many good flavors going on.

The oldest trick in the parent book is sneaking vegetables into foods and your kids being none-the-wiser. They love it, they ask for seconds, and you secretly give yourself a high-five on the way back to the kitchen. Some daring parents will even reveal the supposedly disliked/repulsive ingredients after their kid is on their third helping and it's already packed for their lunch for the next day. "Guess what you just ate...and liked!" (That would be me.) Sometimes it backfires, sometimes it does not, and sometimes it just gets them to eat the above-mentioned four portions (which I'll take!).

This soup is one of those recipes that you can hide at least two other vegetables within. Technically, this is a tomato, red pepper, squash soup but I simply titled it Tomato Soup in case a child or husband sees the recipe pop up somewhere (you're welcome!). I prefer using squash for this soup (kabocha, butternut, or any other rich, sweet squash) but this time I used a pumpkin because we had leftover from a pumpkin stout my husband was making.

Ingredients:

2lbs tomatoes (fresh or canned)

1lb red sweet peppers

2lbs (or roughly 2 cups after it's cooked) squash (kabocha or butternut are best)

10 fresh sage leaves (or basil or cilantro)

salt and pepper to taste

To bake squash: cut in half, deseed, add about 1/2 inch water to pan, and bake for about 1 hour or until cooked through. This time around I discovered a new way of cooking my cucurbitaceae. I deseeded it, cubed it, put it in our cast iron dutch oven, added about 1/2 inch water, put the lid on and baked it for 45 minutes to an hour.

Deseed peppers and slice. Slice tomatoes. Combine tomatoes, peppers, squash (I left the peel on but you can determine how much effort you want to put forth), and sage in blender until desired consistency. You'll probably have to blend in batches. Pour blended mixture into a stockpot, simmer for about 20-30 minutes, and salt and pepper to taste.

Sometimes soups can be less than filling for me, so I often fortify mine with any grains or beans I have around. Suggestions are rice, quinoa, buckwheat, black beans, or garbanzo beans.

Pimento peppers from Alvarez Farms. These are my favorite peppers!