Curried Coconut Butternut Squash Soup

I bet most of you thought that this blog was dead. However, luckily for you, it was only mostly dead, and now that my life has been reclaimed from campaigns and grad school apps, it's back!

 
Given that my first recipe post was a different butternut squash soup, it's perhaps fitting that I restart with another. I do love me some butternut squash. And one of my favorite things in the winter is soup (especially given my 56 degree apartment situation). So, about every other weekend I make a huge pot, put half into containers to bring to work during the week, and freeze the other half so I have quick and delicious homemade dinner when I come home from work and am too tired to cook. This recipe is one of my favorites, loosely inspired by a Mark Bittman creation.

Enjoy!

The finished soup in a recycled ice cream container, ready to take on the road.

Curried Coconut Butternut Squash Soup
Serves 6-8

Ingredients

2 large or 3 small yellow onions

1 tbsp + 2 tsp coconut oil or vegetable oil

3 tsp cumin

4 tsp curry

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

.5 tsp salt, or to taste

7 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash

2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

2 cups veggie broth

one 13.5 oz can coconut milk

Equipment

Vegetable peeler

Large knife

Cutting board

Measuring spoons

Measuring cups

Deep, heavy bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven

Pot holders

Silicone spatula

Can opener

Stove
Immersion blender, regular blender, or food processor 

Instructions
1. If not already prepared, wash, peel, and cut into cubes squash and carrots. Peel and dice the onion.
2. Place coconut oil in a deep saucepan (ideally a Dutch oven) and add the diced onion and all the spices, stirring to coat. Sautée over medium heat until the onion is soft and starting to brown, approximately 3-4 minutes, and the spices are fragrant.
3. Add the squash and carrots to the pan, and toss with the onion and spice mixture.
4. Next, stir in the vegetable broth and coconut milk, and turn the heat up to high until the liquid reaches a simmer. Then turn temperature down to low and cover the pot.
5. Cook, stirring occasionally until squash is soft and easily pierced with a fork, approximately 15 minutes.
6. Puree the soup in a blender, food processor, or in the pot with an immersion blender. [If you don't have any of these, I'm sure the soup will still be delicious in a chunkier form.] Add 0.5 tsp salt, plus more to taste. If the soup thickens too much as it cools, feel free to add a bit of water or vegetable broth to thin to the desired consistency.

Mango, Avocado, and Sesame-Seared Tuna Salad

My regular rule when I eat out is that I don't order anything I think I can make as well or better at home. I gravitate instead towards dishes with hard-to-find or very fresh ingredients, difficult preparation techniques, ethnic foods that I don't know how to make, or very involved recipes. A several fancy restaurants I've been to in the last few years have featured ceviche-like dishes with slices or cubes of raw tuna, often accompanied by avocados, mangos, and citrus fruits. Fearful of doing raw fish at home, I had not attempted to recreate this myself. But when the grocery store had beautiful, essentially sushi-grade, frozen tuna steaks on sale, I knew I had to buy them and give it a try. This delicious recipe is the result. While fancier than I would normally cook on a regular night, it's actually not that expensive if you're buying the raw ingredients, and is great if you want a nicer meal for a special occasion at home. Also, other than searing the tuna, it's really more assembly than cooking, and hard to screw up.

Mango, Avocado, and Sesame-Seared Tuna Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 mango (champagne/atauflo are my favorites)

1 avocado

1 cup cherry tomatoes

2 tuna steaks

1 Tbsp sesame oil

baby greens or other lettuce (optional)

toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Equipment

Knife and cutting board

Saucepan

Stove

Tongs

Instructions

1. Peel mango. Slice fruit from both sides of the pit and along the edges of the pit, then cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

2. Peel avocado, remove pit, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

3. Wash and chop cherry tomatoes in half. Toss tomatoes with mango and avocado to combine.

4. Wash and pat dry tuna steaks. Pour sesame oil into saucepan on stove over medium heat. Place tuna steaks in saucepan and cook until the bottom side has become opaque and begun to develop a golden crust on the edges but middle is still raw. Flip and cook on other side, again until opaque and with a slight golden color, but with the middle still pink along the sides (like in the photo below).

5. Using tongs, carefully rotate the tuna steak so it is standing on its short edges. Cook briefly on each edge until the sides are no longer raw (but the middle remains uncooked). [I love my tuna not really cooked, but if you want yours more cooked, then it's fine to cook longer until pink but not raw in the middle. Just don't cook it until gray throughout, you will ruin it.]

6. Remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes, then slice (see how lovely and raw it still is in the middle!).

7. Plate your greens and top with half the mango mixture or place the mango mixture in a bowl, and arrange the seared tuna on top. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds if desired.

Pesto Quinoa

Sorry I have been delinquent in posting for the last few weeks - too much work and campaign stuff going on. To apologize, I have one of my favorite recipes to share with you. I first made it several summers ago from 101 cookbooks, and have loved it ever since. It is a particular standout in that not only is it delicious and healthy, but also vegan and gluten free (and highly acceptable to those who are neither).

There is some flexibility in the ingredients if you don't have or don't like them, but I find the flavors here are great as is (except for the 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds called for in the original which I have never once remembered to include).

Pesto Quinoa (Adapted from Heather's Quinoa at 101 Cookbooks)

Serves 6

Ingredients

several splashes of extra-virgin olive oil

a pinch of fine grain sea salt

1 shallot, minced

2 cups dry quinoa [you could probably use brown rice, bulgar wheat, or another grain if you want]

1 cup corn, fresh or frozen, removed from the ear (raw and cooked both work)

2 cups kale, finely chopped [you can use spinach or another green if you want]

2 blocks extra-firm nigari tofu

1/3 cup pesto

2/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

Parmesan cheese to garnish (optional)

Equipment

Knife and cutting board

Medium saucepan

Medium pot with lid

Wooden spoon or silicone spatula

LARGE pot for easy reheating, or a bowl in a pinch

Instructions

1.Rinse dry quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer or bowl. In a medium pot heat the quinoa and 4 cups water until boiling. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done when you can see the curlique in each grain, and it is tender with a bit of pop to each bite. Drain any extra water and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, slice tofu into medium sized chunks and pat dry. Brown in a saucepan over medium heat with a little olive oil until golden and crispy on all sides (this is important because it keeps the tofu from crumbling when you mix it with the quinoa). Remove the tofu from heat and set aside.

3. Add a bit more olive oil and salt to the saucepan, still on medium heat, then stir in the shallot and cook for a minute or two. Add corn and kale and continue cooking until kale is wilted and corn is cooked, 2-3 minutes.

4. To the large pot, add cooked quinoa and pesto, mixing until the pesto is distributed throughout. Add the browned tofu, shallot/corn/kale mixture, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes and stir again to distribute. Serve warm, with grated parmesan if desired.

Thai Coconut Curry

I am a big fan of Thai food, and have been experimenting with making it myself at home. This recipe is really easy (Kenzie, I'm looking at you), tastes great, is incredibly versatile. I made it with frozen shrimp because that's the protein I had in my apartment, but you can make it just as easily with tofu, chicken, pork or beef, or even some combo of them. Likewise, I used the veggies I had around, so don't feel constrained by my choices; you can mix it up - add broccoli, snow peas, cauliflower, tomatoes, or shredded carrots. I would say you probably want sturdier veggies because something like spinach will just fall apart, but it's really up to you.

Thai Coconut Curry with Shrimp

Makes 5 large servings

Ingredients

1 can coconut milk (1 2/3 cups)

~3 Tbsp curry paste (I used yellow, you can use red or green if you have it)

~12 cups chopped veggies [I used 2 large red bell peppers, 2 large green bell peppers, 1.5 yellow onions, a can of bean sprouts, a can of water chestnuts, and half a container (about 3/4 cup) mushrooms]

1 lime

2 Tbsp chopped ginger

5 portions of protein (I used 50 medium-large shrimp, you could also use about 1 1/2 blocks of tofu, 4 chicken breasts, etc.) + 1/2-1 Tbsp oil to cook it in

Equipment

Cutting board and knife

Large pot (Dutch oven is ideal)

Can opener

Measuring spoon

Small saucepan (if protein isn't cooked)

Instructions

1. Cut your protein of choice into cubes (you can keep shrimp whole) and saute in a pan with oil if not cooked yet.

2. Wash, then chop/slice veggies into bite size pieces. Rinse any canned veggies (this helps wash away some of the sodium, which is almost always more than you want).

3. Pour coconut milk into large pot set over medium heat. Refill empty can with water and pour into the pot too. Add the ginger and curry paste and stir to combine.

4. Add chopped veggies and simmer in coconut milk mixture until cooked through (time will vary depending on what veggies you use). When veggies are mostly cooked, add cooked protein and stir to distribute.

You can eat the curry plain, or over rice. It reheats very well, and also freezes well.

Curried chicken/tofu salad

This is an easy recipe that packs in lots of protein, healthy fats, and fiber, and also tastes great. You can make it with cubed pan sautéed chicken or tofu, and in the later case it's vegan. I served it cold over greens but it would also be great on a sandwich or warm on rice.

Ingredients
3 chicken breasts/1.5 blocks extra firm tofu
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1.5 ripe avocados
1/2 yellow onion
2 granny smith apples
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp curry powder
3/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
1.5 tbsp lemon juice

Equipment
Knife and cutting board
Strong fork
Large bowl
Medium saucepan
Stove
Measuring spoons

Instructions
1. Cut chicken or tofu into cubes and sauté in olive oil over medium heat until cooked through for chicken and until a golden crust forms for tofu.
2. Chop onion finely. If you want, peel the apple, them chop into smallish pieces (the size of the tip of your pinky or smaller).
3. Peel and remove pit from avocados, then mash in large bowl with a fork until smooth.
4. Add spices and lemon juice to mashed avocado and mix thoroughly with the fork.
5. Add onion, apple, and cubed chicken or tofu and toss to coat with avocado mixture. Eat immediately or refrigerate (note: the avocado will brown quickly but still taste fine for a few days in the fridge). Serves 3-4.

Vegetarian Chili

As promised, here is the recipe for the vegetarian chili I made last week (my variations off of Heidi Swanson's recipe). It's a very flexible recipe, so feel free to tweak based on what you have on hand. It reheats and freezes well, and is both very healthy and very tasty. 

Note: this makes a HUGE pot of chili, like 10 large servings, and was half an inch from overflowing my largest pot, so unless you're cooking for a crowd and have an enormous pot, you will probably want to half the recipe.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
10 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and grated
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 serrano pepper, seeded and finely chopped [serrano peppers are hot, so be careful with your handling of it]
1 chipotle pepper (from can or rehydrated), minced [I used canned in adobo and the flavor was excellent]
1 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes, roughly chopped (save the liquid and add that with the tomatoes too)

1.5 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
8-10 cups vegetable broth (you can sub in water for some or all of this, just adjust your salt accordingly - I used 4 cups broth and 4 cups water)
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (canned is fine)
2 1/4 cups black, brown, or green lentils (or combo), rinsed and picked over [I tried using 1 cup of yellow split peas instead of lentils, and they didn't soften as much as they should have, so I would really use lentils here, or more chickpeas]
1 1/3 cup pearled barley, pearled farro, or bulgur wheat (or some combo) [I used all bulgar wheat and it was great]
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt (or to taste)

cayenne pepper to taste

Equipment

knife and cutting board

sieve/strainer (for rinsing lentils and draining chickpeas)

measuring spoons

measuring cup

can opener

LARGE stockpot or dutch oven

wooden spoon/silicone spatula

Instructions
1. Chop and rinse all ingredients as noted above.

2. In a large stockpot pot over medium heat add the olive oil, onion, and shallots.

3. When the onions soften up and get a bit translucent, add the garlic, ginger, chili powder, and cumin. Stir well and cook for a minute or so, until everything gets quite fragrant.

4. Stir in the serrano pepper and chipotle pepper, canned and fresh tomatoes, and 6 cups of the broth/water. Now add the chickpeas, lentils, and barley/farro/bulgur - stirring between each addition.

5. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 35- 45 minutes (stirring every 5 minutes or so to ensure things don't get stuck to the bottom of the pan and burn, as happened to me) or until the lentils and grains are cooked through. As it cooks down, add more vegetable broth or water as necessary to keep the mixture from getting too thick.

6. Before serving, do your final adjustments - add some cayenne if it's not hot enough yet, or more chipotle, salt, or whatever you think it needs.

Palak Daal

This is a great recipe to make on Sundays for the whole week because it's easy to make in a large quantity and the flavors gets better every day (it also reheats very well). My recipe is an adaptation of the one from 101cookbooks (one of my favorite food blogs - check it out). You have a lot of leeway in the spicing here, so feel free to tweak based on how spicy you like thing. I tend to slightly underspice when I'm making the whole recipe and then individually spice each bowl as I eat it so I can add exactly the right amount (it can be hard to spice a giant pot of food because you won't get all the peppers and spices distributed totally evenly), but you can also just do the whole pot if you don't want to mess with adding spices each meal.

This recipe makes about 8 large servings, so feel free to cut in half. I recommend serving with brown rice, but you could also serve with naan or plain.

Ingredients
1.5 cups / 9.75 oz lentils, picked over and rinsed [the original recipe says to use "white urid/ ivory lentils, I have never found them, so I've used regular lentils and yellow split peas, both of which turned out great, I think french green lentils would also work too]
9 cups water, plus more if necessary
1 lb. spinach, washed and chopped
1.5 Tbsp ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3/4 tsp turmeric
1.5 jalapeno pepppers, minced (plus more for garnishing)
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter (you could probably substitute vegan margarine/olive or canola oil to make it vegan)
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
1.5 tsp red chile powder
juice of 1/4 a lemon
3/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Equipment

Cutting board and large knife

Large pot (ideally thick bottomed so things don't burn)

Stirring spoon or silicone spatula

Small saucepan

Instructions

1. In a large pot over medium-high heat combine the lentils and water, and bring to a boil.

2. While the water boils, work on chopping your spinach, ginger, tomatoes, and jalapenos. [Word of warning on chopping jalapenos - use rubber gloves or put your hand inside a plastic bag as you cut them up so your hands don't start burning, and especially if you have contact lenses, because taking lenses out with small amounts of capsaicin left under your fingernails is a highly unpleasant experience and permanently wrecks your lenses. Also, you should discard all the seeds and the white part the seeds are attached too - all you want is the green exterior.] If you're using baby spinach, you don't need to chop as finely because it will already be in smaller tender leaves, but if you're using spinach with thicker stems and leaves, chop it more finely. [Another note: you can and should store your ginger root in a Ziplock in the freezer. It will keep the ginger fresh much longer, and frozen ginger is way easier to peel and cut into nice shavings that mince into tiny bits.]

3. When the water is boiling, add the spinach, ginger, turmeric, jalapenos, and tomatoes.Reduce the heat, put the top on, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If things start to dry out, add more water, but as long as the pot is covered, that probably won't happen.

4. Towards the end of the simmering time, heat the butter and cumin in a saucepan over medium heat and fry until the cumin seeds start to pop (this is what the instructions say, sometimes they don't pop, maybe the seeds are old or something, so after 30 seconds or so of the butter being hot and melted, if nothing happens, go on). Add the red chile powder and fry for another 30 seconds.

5. Add this butter mixture to the lentils along with the salt and allow to cook for another five minutes.

6. Taste, and season with more salt or other spices if needed. If you care more about ease than prettiness, you can add the chopped cilantro now and stir into the daal, where it will promptly wilt. If you are going to eat most of the daal now, you can serve it into bowls and top with chopped cilantro (and a little bit of extra jalapeno if you like it very spicy), which is a prettier presentation. Otherwise, let it cool some, then put into containers to refrigerate or freeze.