Valley Bounty, January 4, 2014: Winter Squash

Serving winter squash more often is an easy way to increase the local portion of your winter diet. Go simple:  roast, mash, and eat, adding a little cheese or butter if you like. Add squash to enchiladas or lasagna, or slice it thin, roast with onions, and use it to top a pizza. Don’t forget the many flavors of squash soup!

Sources:  CISA’s list of winter squash growers is here—make sure to call first since some are closed for the season. Or visit winter farmers’ markets or retailers specializing in local products to find local winter squash.

Recipes: 

Simple and delicious roasted squash—wash your squash, cut in half, and scoop out the seeds and stringy pulp. Skewer a clove of garlic in the empty cavity with a toothpick, and put the squash halves cut side down in a pan with sides—cast iron fry pan, cookie sheet, or baking pan. Roast at 350°, or thereabouts, until soft. Mash the garlic, a little butter, and some maple syrup into the soft squash, and eat it.

My favorite squash enchilada recipe is here. You can substitute store bought tomatillo sauce, or a red sauce—but next summer, make and freeze some of this tomatillo sauce and then this recipe is really easy to make! Use local frozen corn if you have any, or leave the corn out.

CISA’s Executive Director, Phil Korman, makes a great butternut squash lasagna. He peels and slices the squash and roasts it with olive oil and rosemary, then layers it in the lasagna. He’s partial to goat cheese or smoked cheddar instead of mozzarella.

Butternut squash pizza (this might be my favorite homemade pizza of all).

All of CISA’s winter squash recipes are here. At the bottom of the page are a couple of variations on butternut squash soup with apples or cider.

On New Year’s Eve I made a curried squash soup, trying to recreate one that the Kitchen Garden’s Caroline Pam brought to a CISA workshop last year. Mine was good, but not as good as the one in my memory. Next time I’m going to try this one.