Cooking Challenge: Winter Squash

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inskydiamonds
inskydiamonds Posts: 2,519 Member
in Recipes
Welcome to the eleventh round of the cooking challenge! This week's ingredient comes to us from maeadair who was the winner of the apple challenge.

WinterSquash.jpg

This week's challenge is WINTER SQUASH!

Winter squash incorporates many different types of squash:
Acorn Squash
Ambercup Squash
Autumn Cup Squash
Banana Squash
Butternut Squash
Buttercup Squash
Carnival Squash
Delicata Squash
Fairytale Pumpkin Squash
Gold Nugget Squash
Hubbard Squash
Kabocha Squash
Spaghetti Squash
Sweet Dumpling Squash
Turban Squash

Butternut Squash (1 cup, cubes)
63 calories
0 grams fat
0 mg cholesterol
6 mg sodium
493 mg potassium
16 grams carbs
3 grams dietary fiber
1 grams protein

These are the rules for the challenge:

1. You don't need to have created the recipe from scratch, but you DO need to make it.
2. Voting will be put up for the challenge and the winner of the challenge will pick the next ingredient to be used.
3. Pictures are encouraged but not required. If you want to post a picture upload it on a website like photobucket.com or tinypic.com . If there's any questions about how to do that, don't be shy to ask me.
4. You do need to post the recipe you used so other people can try it too, if they so please.
5. If you used a recipe from another source give credit to the original creator!
6. Your recipe can be a breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, or dessert! Anything!

Fill out the following form to play:

NAME OF RECIPE:
INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS:
CALORIES PER SERVING:
HOW MANY IT SERVES:
OPINIONS ON HOW IT TASTED, ETC:
PICTURE (optional):

Voting for this challenge will begin next Saturday December 25th (CHRISTMAS!!) at 5PM Pacific Standard Time.
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Replies

  • jwd28
    jwd28 Posts: 765
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    Winter Squash Soup with Gruyere Croutons

    Soup:

    ¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter
    1 onion, chopped
    4 large cloves garlic, minced
    3 14 ½ ounce cans chicken or vegetable broth
    1 butternut squash - cut lengthwise & remove seeds
    1 acorn squash - cut lengthwise & remove seeds
    1 ¼ tsp minced fresh (or dry) thyme
    1 ¼ tsp minced fresh (or dry) sage

    ¼ cup whipping cream
    2-tsp brown sugar

    Croutons (optional):

    2 Tbsp butter
    Baguette, sliced
    1 cup grated Gruyere cheese
    1-tsp thyme
    1-tsp sage

    Preparation:

    Bake squash at 400 for 30-40 minutes or until tender.
    Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add broth and herbs. Scoop baked squash from skin and add.
    Working in batches, puree soup in blender & return to pot. Stir in cream and brown sugar. Bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill. Re-warm over medium heat before serving).

    For Croutons:

    Butter sliced bread. Arrange buttered side up on baking sheet. Broil until golden, about 1 minute. Turn over. Sprinkle cheese, thyme sage, salt, and pepper. Broil until cheese melts, about 1 minute.

    Ladle soup into bowls. Top each with croutons and serve.

    Serves 8

    Calories per serving: 127*
    Carbs: 12*
    Fat: 9 *
    Protein: 1*

    *Does not include the croutons/cheese.

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE this soup. It's especially good this time of year. I've also tried it w/o the cream and brown sugar and it's still great.
  • meagalayne
    meagalayne Posts: 3,382 Member
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    Awesome! Just bought a buttercup squash at the market today :bigsmile: Will definitely find time to participate this week. No more slacking! hehe
  • inskydiamonds
    inskydiamonds Posts: 2,519 Member
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    I've never cooked with squash, so this is exciting!
  • meagalayne
    meagalayne Posts: 3,382 Member
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    I've never cooked with squash, so this is exciting!
    My advice? Don't make soup. Such a bore and a total waste of such a flavourful ingredient. Squash has great texture and it's totally lost in a soup. That's just my $0.02...
  • inskydiamonds
    inskydiamonds Posts: 2,519 Member
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    I've never cooked with squash, so this is exciting!
    My advice? Don't make soup. Such a bore and a total waste of such a flavourful ingredient. Squash has great texture and it's totally lost in a soup. That's just my $0.02...

    Thanks for the tip! I was going to make a soup, but now I will look towards something different!
  • Sparklewolfie
    Sparklewolfie Posts: 271
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    ooh I think I know where to get a winter squash!! Hope I can find the time to make a dish for this challenge :smile: cousins are visiting so it is a bit hard :tongue: but I want to do this!
  • jwd28
    jwd28 Posts: 765
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    I've never cooked with squash, so this is exciting!
    My advice? Don't make soup. Such a bore and a total waste of such a flavourful ingredient. Squash has great texture and it's totally lost in a soup. That's just my $0.02...

    Oh I TOTALLY disagree (as you can see from my recipe above :)) Squash soup is delicious - as are other things made with it. Don't shy away from the soup!
  • KarenECunningham
    KarenECunningham Posts: 419 Member
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    I love squash soup. It is so full of flavor and the creaminess makes it one of my favorite comfort foods so thanks for the recipe. This is not a recipe but I bake acorn squash in the oven real slow and it is delicious.
  • inskydiamonds
    inskydiamonds Posts: 2,519 Member
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    Keep entering!!
  • inskydiamonds
    inskydiamonds Posts: 2,519 Member
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    NAME OF RECIPE: Butternut Squash Soup (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Butternut-Squash-Soup/Detail.aspx)

    INGREDIENTS:

    3 tbsp chopped red onion
    2 tbsp unsalted butter
    3 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
    1 1/2 cups water
    2 tsp no sodium chicken bouillon granules
    1/4 tsp dried oregano
    1/8 tsp ground black pepper
    1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
    8 oz cream cheese

    DIRECTIONS:

    1. In a pot melt the butter. Add the onion and cook until transulscent.

    2. Add the squash, water, chicken bouillon, oregano,pepper, and cayenne. Bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes, boiling the whole time.

    3. In a food processor (or blender) add everything from the pot with the cream cheese. Blend until well combined.

    4. Return to pot and heat thoroughly, but keeping from boiling.

    CALORIES PER SERVING: 280
    HOW MANY IT SERVES: 3

    OPINIONS ON HOW IT TASTED, ETC:

    I have never made a creamed soup before. I've also never worked with a butternut squash (or actually, any kind of winter squash) before. So this meal was a bunch of firsts for me. The inspiration came from the winter squash cooking challenge. I don't know if any home cooks like the cooking challenges as much as I do, but they really have been expanding what I cook with. While the butternut squash has seemed like a struggle to me in the past, I found once I tackled the problem of cutting and skinning it, it was really manageable.

    After making the soup I realized I should have used the non-fat cream cheese I had in the refrigerator, but I had forgotten it was there when I pulled out the reduced fat version. Of course... This is a low calorie soup even with the reduced fat, but it would have been even lower! I had originally calculated the soup at 131 calories. To get that use 4 oz of non-fat cream cheese and 4 oz of 1/3 less fat cream cheese.

    The spices in the soup gave it a nice spicy flavor that wasn't overwhelming. Yum yum!

    PICTURE (optional):

    IMG_4125-1.jpg
  • inskydiamonds
    inskydiamonds Posts: 2,519 Member
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    I hope everyone enters by 5PM tomorrow night!
  • melodyg
    melodyg Posts: 1,423 Member
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    How did I miss this one? I've been waiting for an excuse to make butternut squash soup too! Bumping to look at yummy recipes later!
  • taletreader
    taletreader Posts: 377 Member
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    My advice? Don't make soup. Such a bore and a total waste of such a flavourful ingredient. Squash has great texture and it's totally lost in a soup. That's just my $0.02...

    Well, I'm a huge fan of soups, so I disagree with that part.

    This said, I also sometimes just add squash to a mixed tray of roasted vegetables, or roast it (always with a few cloves of garlic in the roasting tray, and if I have it some rosemary or thyme) on its own and dump it over pasta when it's soft. It's versatile enough.
  • karenharrup
    karenharrup Posts: 7 Member
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    1 onion
    1 butternut squash - cubed
    1/2 teaspoon of cumin
    1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander
    1/2 teaspoon of chilli
    1 vegetable stock cube
    water to cover

    Fry the onion in frylight
    Add butternut squash
    add the spices and cook for 2 mins
    add the stock cube and cover with water
    Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 mins

    Delicious
  • meagalayne
    meagalayne Posts: 3,382 Member
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    5pm! Eeek! We're having easy roasted curried buttercup squash with dinner tonight... Hopefully I can get my recipe in by 5pm!
  • inskydiamonds
    inskydiamonds Posts: 2,519 Member
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    How did I miss this one? I've been waiting for an excuse to make butternut squash soup too! Bumping to look at yummy recipes later!

    OH NO!! :(
  • inskydiamonds
    inskydiamonds Posts: 2,519 Member
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    5pm! Eeek! We're having easy roasted curried buttercup squash with dinner tonight... Hopefully I can get my recipe in by 5pm!

    I may be late getting the voting up anyway :)
  • meagalayne
    meagalayne Posts: 3,382 Member
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    Super easy but honestly my favourite part of ANY rustic meat + potatoes meal. We have this instead of potatoes and it has completely usurped the high cal/high GI roasted potatoes of old. Even my dad, a "meat + potatoes" kind of guy if you've ever met one, has agreed that buttercup squash is a welcome replacement. We have it at least a few times a month. Give it a try!

    Oven Roasted Buttercup Squash with Curry Paste

    1/2 medium buttercup squash
    2 Tbsp Patak's Mild Curry Paste (110 cals per 2 Tbsp, according to my bottle - different stats on their official website though)
    1 Tbsp water

    Preheat oven to 400F.
    Cut buttercup squash in two and store half in the fridge (will keep up to a week if covered). Cut the remaining half in two and microwave on high for 4 mins, turn, and cook on high for another 3 mins, until slightly softened. Remove seeds and cut each piece into 4 even slices (resulting in 8 slices total, approx 1 inch wide each). Mix curry paste and water in a small ramekin or bowl to form a spreadable paste. Place the squash slices peel-side down on a baking dish and evenly distribute the curry paste between them. Bake for 15-20 mins until squash appears roasted and soft and curry paste has browned. Serves 4.

    Per serving:
    Calories 76
    Carbs 14
    Fat 2
    Protein 2
    Fiber 4
    Sodium 126

    No pics unfortunately, but check out this recipe as well: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/11/easy-recipe-for-agave-and-balsamic.html Looks scrumptious! I never cook my squash cut-side down, but these pics are mouth-watering... May try it!

    Have a great one!
    Meag

    ps. I'm so glad I made it in time! :bigsmile:
  • inskydiamonds
    inskydiamonds Posts: 2,519 Member
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    Voting is up! Merry Christmas everyone!!
    http://www.scribbld.com/customview.cgi?user=whiskey&styleid=27146

    Voting ends Wednesday.
  • jstutz
    jstutz Posts: 12 Member
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    bumping cuz it looks easy & yummo!

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