Week 18: Mire poix and Winter squash

I couldn't keep up with the weekly posts, but this week seemed like a good week to get back into it. I had winter squash accumulated from multiple weeks - butternut squash, acorn squash, delicata squash, and 2 different types of pumpkin - and I just got a new Blendtec blender, so it seemed good timing to do a squash soup. I halved the pumpkin, delicata and acorn squash and roasted them in the oven at 350 degrees, taking them out one-by-one as they softened up. 

All my blanching and freezing these past few months paid off when I had celery and onions, but not carrots. Luckily, I had carrots from August all sliced up in my freezer. I sauteed them in a stockpot with olive oil, until they just started to caramelize. 

In the blender, I put 2 cups of chicken broth, the squash, and 1-2 cups of mirepoix. The squash was still hot from the oven, and after 90 seconds of blending it was ready to eat! It was surprisingly sweet, so I may have to add a little cayenne pepper or something to give it a kick.

Other tasks for this week included:

- blanch broccoli for pizza/ pasta/ vegetable side

- make more soup with the leftover mirepoix

- prepare Martha Stewart's Swiss chard lasagna (https://www.marthastewart.com/1086311/swiss-chard-lasagna) - switch out the mozzarella for ricotta, yum! 

- roast beets and make into cold salad (https://www.marthastewart.com/947113/beet-salad-ginger-dressing)

This week I got more than one recipe from this book I got from the library, " Martha Stewart Vegetables". It seems to be a good balance of veggie sides, as well as veggie-protein combos: https://www.marthastewart.com/1504833/sneak-peek-martha-stewarts-vegetables


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