Surprised by a vegetarian who shows up for dinner?


 
Clint

Clint

TVWBB Olympian
No problem!

(courtesy of The Onion)

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If you have a grill, most vegetables (yes, including tomato and onion -- even romaine lettuce) can be coated with EVOO and quickly (@10 min.) grilled and served up. Potatoes take longer, but cut in half are excellent when grilled. Don't exclude squash, cauliflower, corn-on-the-cob, zuchini, peppers of all kinds, and broccoli. And don't forget garlic and mushrooms. Adding a little basalmic vinegar, teri-yaki or steak sauce doesn't hurt as long as the sauce isn't on the guests list of exclusions.

All of these and others (and fruits) are included in our standard grill fare.
 
I LOVE roasted vegetables done right (still trying to recreate a memory without much luck). Sunday before last I made roasted butternut squash (coated with browned butter & toasted hazelnuts)....also made an acorn squash (with sweet potato & carrot) soup....... both were I think from Forks over Knives (the acorn squash soup was so good I was afraid I lost it online but it was there when I opened the kindle - it was a keeper.
 
Just finished off a butternut pie, and it was every bit as good as a pumpkin pie.

We also have two acorn squash in the waiting. Not sure if they will be turned into soup - or another pie.
 
Rusty James said:
Just finished off a butternut pie, and it was every bit as good as a pumpkin pie.

We also have two acorn squash in the waiting. Not sure if they will be turned into soup - or another pie.
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I'd like to try that pie!

Here's the recipe for that soup - I took it with me a couple days and I was happy each time I ate it - --- super simple and really good. I had low expectations for it. The acorn squashes were hard to peel since they're so uneven, I bought a butternut squash to make it with next time.

This is out of the Forks Over Knives cookbook - I look through a lot of their stuff but I think this might be the first thing I've made from it.

Acorn Squash Soup
ALAN GOLDHAMER AND DOUG LISLE | THE HEALTH PROMOTING COOKBOOK THIS SMOOTH, VELVETY soup has a beautiful orange color and makes a nice presentation with a sprig of parsley as a garnish.

SERVES 8

7 cups vegetable stock or water
3 acorn squash, peeled and chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large yam, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon sage
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (I just used frozen mixed veggies)

1. In an 8-quart soup pot, bring the stock or water to a boil and stir in all the ingredients except the corn. Cook over medium-high heat for 20 minutes, or until the squash is soft. 2. Blend the soup in batches in a food processor or blender until smooth. Return to the pot, add the corn, and reheat on low for 10 minutes. Doug Lisle, PhD DR.
 
Thanks much, Clint!

Here's the butternut squash pie recipe. *Just change the Splenda to sugar.

4 to 5 lb Butternut squash (whole)
1 can (large) Evaporated milk
1.5 cup Splenda Granulated Sweetener*
2 Large eggs
2 GREAT VALUE Frozen Traditional Pie Crusts (or your brand)
1 tsp Ground ginger
2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1 tsp Vanilla flavoring / extract
0.5 tsp Ground cloves
0.5 tsp Salt

Slice squash in half and take out seeds.

Bake squash halves in a 350° oven for 30 minutes, or until a knife goes in easily. Let cool until touchable.

Remove squash from hull and place in food processor with milk, Splenda (sugar), eggs, salt, spices, and flavoring. Blend thoroughly.

Pour mixture into pie shells, and place in a 425° pre-heated oven for 15 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350° for another 40 to 50 minutes (or until an inserted knife comes out clean).

Our Splenda version has about 200 calories per 1/8 pie for what it's worth.
 
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Rusty James said:
Thanks much, Clint!

Here's the butternut squash pie recipe. *Just change the Splenda to sugar.

4 to 5 lb Butternut squash (whole)
1 can (large) Evaporated milk
1.5 cup Splenda Granulated Sweetener*
2 Large eggs
2 GREAT VALUE Frozen Traditional Pie Crusts (or your brand)
1 tsp Ground ginger
2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1 tsp Vanilla flavoring / extract
0.5 tsp Ground cloves
0.5 tsp Salt

Slice squash in half and take out seeds.

Bake squash halves in a 350° oven for 30 minutes, or until a knife goes in easily. Let cool until touchable.

Remove squash from hull and place in food processor with milk, Splenda (sugar), eggs, salt, spices, and flavoring. Blend thoroughly.

Pour mixture into pie shells, and place in a 425° pre-heated oven for 15 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350° for another 40 to 50 minutes (or until an inserted knife comes out clean).

Our Splenda version has about 200 calories per 1/8 pie for what it's worth.
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That sounds good! I haven't done a whole lot with squash, but I'm thinking I might sub pumpkin in for something sometime :) Might be a mistake but pumpkins are cheap (iirc)
 
Clint said:
That sounds good! I haven't done a whole lot with squash, but I'm thinking I might sub pumpkin in for something sometime :) Might be a mistake but pumpkins are cheap (iirc)
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It's the first time we've tried butternut squash pie. I love pumpkin pie, but I love b'nut pie, too, now. Lookin' forward to acorn squash soup, and maybe pie too.
 
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Many years ago in my youth, some friends and I got this brilliant idea on Halloween night that we should go buy a whole bunch of pumpkins and pile them on the front porch of a friend of ours. We thought it would be funny if he got up in the morning and found this mountain of pumpkins right outside his door. Figuring most pumpkin patches would be looking to get rid of the leftovers at bargain prices, we stopped by one of the larger ones run by a family. (So somebody would be there to take our money. We weren't looking to steal pumpkins.) They pointed us to a pile and said we could have whatever we wanted of those, which were all defective in some way, mostly by being broken. They said the other pile had already been sold to some company for canning into pumpkin pie filling. These were all regular Halloween style pumpkins. So somebody out there is putting common pumpkins into their canned pie filling.

My great aunt used to be amused by making squash pie at Thanksgiving, passing it off as pumpkin, and then "surprising" everyone with the truth of it being squash. Of course, we were all wise to it after the first year so it wasn't much of a surprise after that. It was also rather watery. I don't think she cooked it down enough. At least it was totally from scratch.
 
Nice story. I have another one...I'm a homebrewer. MOST "Pumpkin" Beer doesn't have ANY pumpkin in it...just the spices.

That's probably how squash gets passed off as "pumpkin" too. It's the spices (ginger, nutmeg, cloves, etc.) we are actually tasting.
 
I always go back to Joy when seeking definitions of the history of food. They say Pumpkin is the name we have given orange winter squash with a round shape usually ridged.
They name Connecticut Field and Small Sugar as two fine pie making pumpkins. Both have been around for hundreds of years.

Tim
 
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