Roasted Squash Salad

Quite frankly, this is a combination of ingredients that had never crossed my mind.. until I took a look at what I had left hanging around from the past fall and winter! I used the pretty cross-cuts of the delicata squash that my sister grew in her garden last year (still good!), a large potato chopped into thumb-sized peices, some kale, radishes, almonds and some miso and curry.
It was good. It really was.
The flavor was bold and vibrant and it was a breeze to make - no need to peel this type of squash. I suspect you could do endless riffs on this depending on what you have on hand, or what is in season. The nuts give a great texture and crunch. Feel free to play around with this general idea.

Roasted Delicata Squash Salad

1/2 pound potatoes, cut into thumb sized paices
3/4 pound delicata squash, (or butternut squash)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup white miso
1 tsp curry
3/4 tsp cummin
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp salt
1 garlic cloves finly minced
a pinch of cinnamon
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, (About 1 lemon, you could also use lime)
A big bunch of kale, finely chopped (cabbage works well here too)
4 radishes, very thinly sliced
1/4 c toasted almonds, other toasted nuts

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees. If the potatoes aren't tiny, slice them into pieces no larger than your thumb. Cut the delicata squash in half length-wise, and use a spoon to clear out all the seeds. Cut into 1/2-inch wide half-moons. You can leave the peel on if your using delicata squash.
In a small bowl whisk together olive oil, and next 7 ingredients. Place the potatoes and squash in a large bowl with 1/2 of the miso/curry/oil. Toss well, then turn out onto a baking sheet. Bake until everything is baked through and browned, about 25-30 minutes. Toss once or twice along the way after things start to brown a bit. Keep an eye on things though, you can go from browned to burned in a flash.
In the meantime, whisk the lemon juice into the remaining miso-harissa oil. Stir the kale into the leftover dressing and set aside.
Place the warm roasted vegetables in a bowl and toss with the kale mixture, radishes, and almonds.

Butternut Squash and Sage Ravioli

Butternut Squash and Sage Ravioli

2 Cups cooked butternut squash
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
½ cup grated Parmesan
½ cup bread crumbs
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves
1 batch of fresh egg pasta dough

Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving

Scoop out 2 cups of flesh from a butternut squash. Combine with butter until smooth. Add cheese and bread crumbs, garlic and sage and season with salt and pepper.

Making the filled pasta
Roll out the pasta dough, either by hand or with a pasta machine, into wide long strips. Crease a strip of dough crosswise, lay out a double row of filling on one half, then bring the second half over the top. The ravioli should be about 2-inch squares. Seal with a ravioli stamp or if you have a ravioli attachment for your pasta machine you could use that too! I find using the stamp works the best though. Cut with a sharp knife to seperate the ravioli. I then through them into a plastic siplock and straight into the freezer, or pot of boiling water if you plan to eat them right away!

Vegan "Pumpkin" bottoms

Today I was craving something with pure decadence...



Mmm yes. I ran across this recipie in MIX magazine from the girls down at Sweetpea Baking Company. I did alter it a bit though. I'm not vegan but enjoy expiramentation, so I was happy to try it. I was invisioning, after reading through the recipie, melty muffin cake w/ a gooey cakey oozy middle. And thats what I got...






I was suprised it called for chocolate chips. I just chopped up some good dark block chocolate that I had.

Vegan Pumpkin Bottoms: from the girls at Sweetpea Baking Company

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

Cake batter:
1½ cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
½ cup canned pumpkin purée (or squash)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling:
4 ounces (½ tub) Tofutti cream cheese (non-hydrogenated)
¼ cup sugar
1½ teaspoons cornstarch
¾ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons mini chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, pie spice and ginger together in a large bowl. Add the water, oil, pumpkin and vanilla and whisk until the batter is smooth.
Make the filling: Blend the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the corn startch, vanilla, lemon zest and salt until the mixture is smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.
Line or oil a standard-size muffin tin. Fill each cup with 2 tablespoons of pumpkin batter. Drop 1 heaping tablespoon of the filling into the center of each and then top with the remaining pumpkin batter (about 1 heaping tablespoon on each). Bake about 20 to 25 minutes.

Enjoy! I gave one to my dad and ate the rest within a couple days... But they were definently worth it!