Katherine comments on Gingered Carrots and Butternut Squash Soup
Elizabeth offers her recipe for Stuffed Butternut Squash
April has a few suggestions for sweet potatoes including roasting them along with your chicken
Maurisa offers her method for making Sweet Potato Hash Browns
With the illness we have been enduring prior to and after Shortcake's birthday celebration, (but thankfully, not on!) I took note when Elizabeth mentioned her attempt to feed her family one serving of an orange vegetable a day. She even linked to some delicious looking possibilities. I've read about increasing orange vegetable consumption to stave off illness during the winter months before. It got me thinking about the recipes we love that call for orange veggies and noticing how limited they were. How many times can a kid eat pumpkin bread before they turn into a pumpkin? I would have also asked about raw carrots, but The Professor has proved to me that he could eat almost an entire bag of baby carrots and not get sick of them!
So, I'm looking for more of your tried and true orange recipe favorites. Feel free to post the recipe in the combox or link me to a blog post. Here are the favorites I am sharing for anyone who wants them:
Butternut Squash Mashed Potatoes
1 medium-large butternut squash, peeled and cubed
5 pounds of potatoes, peeled and cubed
butter
milk or cream
salt & pepper to taste
Okay, this really isn't a recipe. Just add butternut squash to your favorite mashed potato recipe. I like to use one medium-large squash per 5 pounds of potatoes. Peel the squash, cube it and cook it right along with the potatoes (in the same pot!). Mash them or whip them all together with butter, milk, cream, salt, pepper, whatever you like. I personally prefer garlic salt instead of regular salt for these deliciously orange potatoes. My kids love them!
Un-Pasty Pumpkins
Make your favorite pumpkin pie recipe, but cook it in individual, greased ramekin cups. No crust! Just bake up the pumpkin pie in the cups and add a scoop of whipped cream on top. Sometimes we make these in the summer and serve them chilled.
This one IS an actual recipe from Kitchenaid but you can make it using a regular electric mixer. We usually make it with reduced sugar and no topping.
Sweet Potato Puff
2 med. sweet potatoes; peeled and cooked (I like to steam them.)
1/2 C. milk
3/4 C. sugar (1/2 C.)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 C. butter or marg.; melted
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a mixer, whip potatoes for 30 sec. on power level 2. Add everything else and whip for another 1-2 minutes or until smooth; no big lumps. Pour into a greased 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Spoon optional topping over puff and bake another 10 minutes. (Without topping just bake for 30 minutes total.)
You can double this recipe. Place in a 9x13 casserole dish and bake for about 45 minutes – 1 hour or until center is set.
Optional topping:
1/3 C. butter or marg.; melted
3/4 C. corn flakes; coarsely crushed
1/2 C. nuts; pecans
1/2 C. brown sugar
Mix together with fork.
And one more that I'm looking forward to trying someday from Allrecipes (oooooh, or maybe this one)...
Apple-Stuffed Acorn Squash
- 1 medium acorn squash
- 1 cup chopped, peeled apple
- 4 teaspoons honey
- 2 teaspoons butter
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Cut squash in half; discard seeds. Place squash cut side up in a 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pan. Fill centers with apple. Cover and bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the honey and butter. Cover and microwave on high for 15-20 seconds or until butter is melted. Drizzle over squash. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake, uncovered, 25-30 minutes longer or until tender.
Other ideas:
Sweet potato fries (homemade or store bought)
Pineapple Carrot Salad
Roasted Squash Medley
My kids like gingered carrots. Boil carrots until tender. Drain (you can save the water for soup). Mix carrots with butter, a little brown sugar, ground ginger, pepper and salt. Bake, covered, 20 - 30 minutes at 350. Here's a link to a good soup using butternut squash: http://www.jewishfood-list.com/recipes/soup/gypsysoup01.html
ReplyDeleteThis is a family favorite. You can change the veggies and spices to suit your tastebuds though.
ReplyDeleteButternut Squash:
* large butternut squash
* dried bread cubes (or a stuffing mix from a box will do nicely too)
* sliced cremini mushrooms
* diced jalepenos
* minced garlic
* diced onions
* cubed squash (either from the butternut or from another type of squash
* shredded monterey jack cheese (fontina cheese is a nice alternate)
* salt, pepper to taste. We've added cayenne pepper, cumin, italian seasonings for variations too.
1. Bake your squash until you can run a knife through it. Cut is in half and cleand out the seeds. Then scoop out some of the meat along the middle of the entire half.
2. Add butter or extra virgen olive oil to a large pan and saute your veggies. Add your seasonings while cooking. Add the bread cubes and mix it all up like a regular stuffing.
3. Fill in your squash with the stuffing mix and add top off the squash with the shredded cheese.
4. Put it all back in a 350 oven until the cheese has melted and the squash is completely warmed.
Enjoy!
Elizabeth C.
CA
I love orange veggies! The easiest way I have found to incorporate them is to use sweet potatoes in stew instead of regular potatoes. Carrot can also go in any stew of course. I also love to cube butternut squash or sweet potato or slice some carrots and roast them along with chicken. Just don't forget to toss them in some olive oil and add rosemary. It's so good! They can usually stay in the oven as long as the chicken does. I usually cook the veggies and the chicken together in one casserole dish. It's almost a one pot meal. Just add some greens or a salad and you're good to go!
ReplyDeleteI just tried sweet potato hash browns. They were heavenly! No recipe. I just melted butter along with some oil in a skillet and added a single layer of shredded sweet potatoes once the butter stopped foaming. Fry for about 5 minutes (?) without stirring. You'll notice the bottom of the hash browns begin to color and crisp up, that's when you flip and let them fry on the other side for several minutes until crispy and browned. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste.
ReplyDeleteWhen my sis-in-law came to visit she made sweet potato fries. They are oven baked, tossed in olive oil and garlic and italian seasonings, served with curried mayo. Not sure of the recipe for that, but it was soooo good.
ReplyDeleteWe all loved it.
(I'm roasting an acorn squash for lunch as I write this!)
:)